A beautiful escape..
Leaving on Monday, September 27, 2021 from Les Sables-d'Olonne, the 90 Ministes had a rather invigorating start to the first stage. On the second night, the passage of a front allowed a group of 4 Protos - Tanguy Bouroullec, Fabio Muzzolini, Pierre Le Roy and Irina Gracheva to escape as they rounded Cape Finisterre. And while they were heading towards the Canaries, pushed by the Portuguese trade winds, all the others stopped dead in their tracks, stuck in the calm.
Everyone to the shelters
A short respite as a second front came to shake up the fleet. Very active off Cape Finisterre, a SOS forced almost the entire fleet to take shelter to let the storm pass. Only Piers Copham (719 - Voiles des Anges), Georges Kick (529 - Black Mamba) and Melwin Fink (920 - SingForCom) decided to continue their route. A choice that has benefited the latter intrepid, who enjoys today the first place at the head of the fleet of Mini series, more than 100 miles ahead of his direct pursuer.
This decision to stop to let the front pass - and yet advised by the race director, Denis Hugues - has also caused a lot of ink to flow on the networks. Everyone has commented on this forced stopover. As a reminder, in Mini, it is possible to make a stopover, the competitor being then penalized by 12 hours. However, no serious accident has been reported and most of the competitors have resumed their course to the South.
An unbreakable trio
In the south, the four Protos were fighting it out to get to Santa Cruz de La Palma first. And the match was really tight between the male trio. It was finally Tanguy Bouroullec (969 - Tollec MP/Pogo) who won this Monday, October 4 at 5:42 pm, followed by Fabio Muzzolini (945 - Tartine sans Beurre) and Pierre Le Roy (1019 - TeamWork), the good surprise of this edition . Only 1 hour and 10 minutes separates the three leaders..
"I'm very happy, especially since it was a very complicated stage. There are only four of us to have passed Cape Finisterre. I knew that a large majority of the fleet had taken shelter because of the weather conditions. It was strange to hear this kind of news. I took out my charts to see where everyone had stopped. It was actually a complicated stage weather-wise. I can't wait to see the mapping to understand everything that happened. I have no idea where Fabio came from! We had complex conditions, with double ridges, a front in the middle... it was hard to know where we were in relation to all that" said Tanguy upon his arrival.
