(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Team Oman Sail finished third in the first offshore leg of the 2014 Tour de France a la Voile (TDV) that concluded in Dieppe, France on Monday following a long night sailing upwind.
French team Groupama 34 won the offshore leg as the nine teams battled it out from Dunkerque to Dieppe. Groupama 34's win helped Fabien Henry and his crew extend its overall lead and is followed by Courrier Dunkerque 3 and third-placed Team Oman Sail.
After a windward-leeward course at the start in Dunkerque and a mark to round off Nieuwpoort in Belgium, the fleet headed west towards Cape Griz Nez. The boats sailed upwind all night in 20 knots of wind. Along the coast of Normandy, the wind started to drop.
Groupama 34 crossed the finish line first, five minutes ahead of Courrier Dunkerque 3 and six minutes ahead of Team Oman Sail.
Sidney Gavignet, the skipper of Team Oman Sail, said, ''It was not a bad race, but we had moments where we could not find the right settings to go fast. Courrier Dunkerque 3 also had those down times, but not Groupama 34. The contest is still open because everyone is learning with the new sails, so we are all improving. We all look at each other trying to do the same set-up. But apart from that, it was a horrible leg upwind sitting in the rail.''
At Dieppe, the teams were involved in two inshore races on Tuesday with Team Oman Sail managing a third and fourth-place finish, respectively.
Overall ranking (after two inshore races on tuesday):
1 Groupama 34 (240 pts), 2 Courrier Dunkerque 3 (237), 3 Team Oman Sail (225), 4 Bretagne-Credit Mutuel Elite (214), 5 Ville de Geneve-Carrefour Addictions (209), 6 Normandy-Acerel, (204), 7 Toulon Provence Mediterranee- Coych (199), 8 Nantes Saint- Nazaire (191), 9 Be Brussels Bienne Voile (170).
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