Tour Voile victory for TPM Coych

Fabien Henry and Tugdual Becquemie's team result confirmed in La Seyne sur Mer

Just to confirm how good they are, TPM Coych won the last two races today in La Seyne sur mer/Toulon Provence Méditerranée, to confirm their overall victory in the Tour de France à la Voile. This was a long-waited success for this team of local friends; a deserved victory after a long fight with the other favorite Courrier Dunkerque 3, which finishes second overall.

“It feels like the blue star in our main sail really was above us all the time,” said Tudgual Becquemie, co-skipper of TPM Coych. “Our team totally bonded and we did a great job. We won the three pre-Tour races and we have won the Tour today. I don’t think this year could be any better.”

It couldn’t really. Led by Fabien Henry and Tugdual Becquemie, and with the likes of America's Cup helmsman Sebastien Col and leading light of the Figaro class Fabien Delahaye among their crew, TPM Coych has won this year's Tour 22 points ahead of Courrier Dunkerque 3. The fight between the southern and the northern teams has livened up this edition. They have been exchanging positions since 1 July in Dunkirk through until 20 July in Rosès, Spain, when TPM Coych took the overall lead and remained in total control for the rest of the race.

Today was no different, with two inshore races sailed in Toulon’s bay in 15-20 knots of southwesterly wind, TPM Coych won both legs easily just ahead of Daniel Souben’s team, a last revival of their month-long duel!

Ashore, their 13 rivals all pay them a tribute: TPM Coych is a friendly team, with extremely skilled sailors onboard, yet all are long-term friends. They’ve been sailing the Tour since 2001 and won it twice, in 2005 and 2007. Five years later, Henry’s fellowship returned to the spotlight and they are fully enjoying it.

“It has to be emotional, amazing," said Henry. "I’m truly happy we lasted until the end of the race and overcame the tough times we had in the Channel. I think that was the moment, which allowed us to go for the win once in the Mediterranean Sea. Our group this year is a success. It’s one of these years when everything falls into places the way you want it to. We managed to work before the Tour and then to keep enjoying the benefits of this work during the race. Erwan (Israël, winner of the Volvo Ocean Race with Groupama) was the only one missing the pre-race training but I wasn’t too worried. When I take a commitment I’m always giving 100%! That’s my state of mind. I did my best to organise things so that we could be in the lead this year. I enjoyed it a lot – it went well before the race and even better during the Tour! This year has been a success.”

Daniel Souben, skipper of Courrier Dunkerque 3 added: ”Very, very disappointed not to win this Tour. We had two objectives this year: to sail a beautiful race in terms of competition. That goal is reached ‘cause we fought well with TPM and it was great from a sport point of view – and from the human point of view too since both teams go along very well. On the other hand we are very disappointed with our result. The first place was the only one to matter. We’re frustrated about that.

“Well done to TPM – that’s a beautiful team. The proof is, they win both races today. That’s a brilliant victory. We are rather proud of the fight we gave them. May they enjoy it!”

The fight for the third place also came to an end today. Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite and BAE Systems were tied up in points when they left the dock this morning. The Brittany team finished third and 6th; the Omanis 6th and 4th – so BCM Elite completes the overall podium only one point ahead of BAE Systems.

There were no surprises on the amateur side: Ville de Genève Carrefour Prévention took the fifth place overall with a great victory. The Swiss team finished 119 points ahead of the next amateur team, BRED/La Normandie, 8th overall.

The 14 M34s will go out one last time tomorrow at 1400 for the non-points scoring ‘postlogue’, a race to celebrate the end of a month of competition, TPM Coych’s victory and everyone’s effort in this Tour de France à la Voile 2012.

Overall results after 33 races :
1 - TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE –COYCH (FRA 07) - Fabien Henry / Tugdual Becquemie, 904 pts - SPI BLEU
2 - COURRIER DUNKERQUE 3 (FRA 08) - Daniel Souben, 882 pts
3 - BRETAGNE - CREDIT MUTUEL ELITE (FRA 18) - Nicolas Troussel, 836 pts
4 - BAE SYSTEMS (OMA 4) - Cédric Pouligny, 835 pts
5 -VILLE DE GENEVE – CARREFOUR PREVENTION (SUI 19) - Jérôme Clerc / Elodie Mettraux, 826 pts
6 - ILE DE FRANCE (FRA 16) - Vincent Aillaud, 791 pts
7- NANTES SAINT NAZAIRE - E.LECLERC (FRA 6) - Corentin Douguet, 772 pts
8 - BRED / La NORMANDIE (FRA 15), skippered by Arthur Herreman / Baptiste Choquenet, 707 pts
9 - CÔTES D'ARMOR BRETAGNE (FRA 14) - Josselin Le Moine, 650 pts
10 - TU DELFT (NED 1) - Pieter Van Notten, 639 pts
11 - MARTINIQUE - MEDIABAT (FRA 2) - Mathieu Mourès, 603 pts
12 - REGION DE BRUXELLES - CAPITALE / BRUSSELS HOOFDSTEDELIJK GEWEST (BEL 2) - Bertrand Pacé, 585 pts
13 - ISKAREEN (GER 11) - Christiane Dittmers / Sönke Bruhns, 573 pts
14- BIENNE VOILE - SRS (SUI 22) - Lorenz Mueller / François Kunz, 427 pts
15 - Fascinating Seas International (RUS 23) - Leonid Klepikov, 421 pts

Amateur results (top 3)after 33 races:
1 - Ville de Genève - Carrefour Prévention, Elodie Jane Mettraux / Jérôme Clerc, 826 pts- SPI ROSE
2 - BRED / La Normandie, Arthur Herreman / Baptiste Choquenet, 707 pts
3 - Côtes d'Armor Bretagne, Josselin Le Moine, 650 pts

Provisional offshore results (top 3):
1 - Toulon Provence Méditerranée - COYCH, Fabien Henry, 412 pts
2 - COURRIER DUNKERQUE 3 (FRA 08) - Daniel Souben / 378 pts SPI VERT
3 - Ville de Genève - Carrefour Prévention, Elodie Jane Mettraux / Jérôme Clerc, 374 pts

Provisional inshore results (top 3) after 23 races:
1 - COURRIER DUNKERQUE 3 (FRA 08) - Daniel Souben / 589 pts
2 - TOULON PROVENCE MEDITERRANEE –COYCH (FRA 07) - Fabien Henry / Tugdual Becquemie, 572 pts
3 - BAE SYSTEMS (OMA 4) - Cédric Pouligny, 552 pts SPI ROUGE