Alex Thomson finished second in this 8th Vendée Globe by crossing the finish line this Friday 20th January 2017 at 8 hours 37 minutes and 15 seconds. He arrived in Les Sables-d'Olonne 15 h 59 min and 29 s after the winner Armel Le Cléac'h.
It was the 4th participation of the British candidate and his second podium (3rd in 2013, abandoned in 2004 and 2008). " I'm up one spot from four years ago and so is Alex Thomson." indicated yesterday Armel le Cléac'h.
Throughout the race, he set a hell of a pace, despite his foil damage on 19 November 2016. The duel with Armel le Cléac'h was intense and the suspense lasted until the last day of the race! He wanted to become the first British sailor to win the solo round the world race, non-stop and without assistance, and deserves his second place.
"It's great, especially to finish. 24-36 hours ago, I knew it was over and that Armel was going to win. I've only slept five hours in three days and for the last 24 hours I haven't slept at all. The foil? It happens. It's part of the Vendée Globe game. I felt a certain frustration, but now I don't think about it anymore. It hasn't been easy. I didn't enjoy this race as much as the last one. I want to sleep! But I know that if I sleep, I'm going to wake up in an hour. Third, second... we'll see. I would like to set up a competitive project. Armel is a machine, a great sailor. He came in second twice. He had to win. He's a very modest person. Very nice. His team did a great job." said Alex Thomson before entering the channel at Les Sables d'Olonne.
The duel with the winner started right from the start, with Alex Thomson leading on November 7 and 8, then thirteen days from November 12 to 26, and on November 26, December 1 and 2. The Breton will take the lead of the fleet afterwards, never to let it go again! November 15 established a new reference time for crossing the equator in 9 d 07 h 02 min, 1 day and 4 hours less than the previous time held by Jean Le Cam since 2004.
On 19th November, he was 133.70 miles ahead of Armel Le Cléac'h, the furthest distance he will ever go, before breaking his starboard foil. Despite this damage, on 24th November Alex Thomson crossed the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope after 17 days 22 h and 58 min at sea, pulverising Armel Le Cléac'h's reference time for 2012 by more than 5 days. He still has a 4 h 22 min lead over his pursuer.
And the Pacific crossing wasn't favourable for him when the two leaders had to round a badly positioned high pressure just above the Antarctic Exclusion Zone: the skipper of Banque Populaire VIII, with his small lead, then made a break: on 25th December, Alex Thomson rounded Cape Horn almost two days later and 819 miles ahead of the frontrunner. However, in spite of the successive returns of the Briton throughout the climb back up the Atlantic, after the Falkland Islands, off Brazil, in an extended Doldrums, in the passage of the Azores and up to the day before the finish, Armel Le Cléac'h was within slingshot range... but still ahead.
However, on the morning of 16th January, Hugo Boss set the record for the distance covered in 24 hours with 536.81 miles at an average speed of 22.4 knots!
On 18th January, on the eve of the finish in Les Sables-d'Olonne, the British skipper was just 40 miles behind his French rival, still competing for first place : "I'm trying to get my airspeed indicator to work (disrupting autopilot operation). But I'm running out of options to get back to Armel. I'm not concentrating on the finish, but on what I need to do to get the autopilots working so I can sleep. I've been up all night and I'm very tired..." He finished his Vendée Globe at dawn today with a fine runner-up spot.
