A great breakaway for Gurvan Bontemps and Benjamin Amiot

We knew that today's stage would be extremely tactical, but nobody was disappointed! To win today, you needed a nose for the road and perhaps a bit of luck; for the others, you had to work hard to come back and try to limit the damage! With a 13-minute lead at the finish, Gurvan Bontemps and Benjamin Amiot (Stickerman - French Caribbean) won the race, took the lead overall and were congratulated by all their rivals! Hats off to them!

The second leg of the Martinique Cata Raid, from Le Prêcheur to Schoelcher, required a bit of flair this lunchtime, given the erratic winds and numerous mistoufles on this leeward coast.

When the starting signal sounded, a large part of the fleet found themselves stuck, glued and taped together, while a handful of lucky ones made their way out of the zone. For the stragglers, it's all about self-sacrifice and not getting too worked up, before working hard to catch up with the frontrunners. A number of competitors made remontadas: Thomas Proust and Lou Berthomieu (Girafa&Criqueto) in the F16 class: ‘We did a lot of watching, a lot of tacking, we put the spinnaker up, we took it down, we did a lot of manoeuvres... in the end, we came through it well, we managed to get the pressure back (from the wind) and set off upwind again’ or the Nico's (Gillet and Poix - Socoveam-Anmizi) in the F18 class!

I found it tough,’ confides Nicolas Gillet, ’both morally and physically, because we had to work hard. But Nico did a great job!

Meanwhile, the leaders were breaking away. Gurvan Bontemps and Benjamin Amiot (Stickerman- French Caribbean) found the perfect position on the water, close to the coast, and caught the magic pressure! ‘We didn't waste any time on the bus taking us to Le Prêcheur, we just scouted the area along the coast’, admits Benjamin. This good option quickly proved to be an excellent one, with the duo extending their lead again and again! Not only were they never caught, but they also dealt a crushing blow to all their rivals by crossing the finish line in Schoelcher 13 minutes ahead of Victorien Erussard and Fred Moreau (Energy Observer) and the Nico's crew who had returned from the devil's devil!

Once again fourth overall, Thomas Proust and Lou Berthomieu won the F16 class ahead of Yohan Debauque and Léo Maurin. With performances like that, who could stop them?

On the riders' side, the wind in the start area was too light to allow the wings to take off. The committee therefore decided to move the start directly to Schoelcher and launch two legs in the bay of Fort de France. After a fairly close match with Alan Fedit, Oscar Leclair won again on this second day of racing.

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They said :

Alan Fedit - Wing
We sailed two great races. I wasn't far from Oscar (Leclair editor's note) I was even ahead of him on the first leg, but I missed a buoy, which is a real shame!

Oscar Leclair - Wing
wo great races with good wind. We had a great time. We had a few minor equipment problems with Alan but we managed to finish the heats. I won both of them, so I'm really happy! I'm looking forward to tomorrow, more travelling and seeing the sights!

F16 Thomas Proust - Lou Berthomieu (Girafa&Criqueto)
We got off to a very bad start, to windward of the line, where there was no wind at all at the start. We saw all the leeward boats leave before we could finally get going. We watched a lot, tacked a lot, put the spinnaker on, took it off, did a lot of manoeuvres... in the end we came through it well, we managed to regain the pressure (of the wind) to set off upwind again.

We had a bit of a battle to find the buoy in the bay of Fort de France. In the end, it turned out pretty well: we finished 4th in the Scratch and 1st F16!  It's really nice to be battling it out with the F18s, even though we've got a bit of a speed deficit that we have to make up for.

We're going to try to keep up the momentum, not lose any time and even try to gain more time on the others and, above all, have as much fun as we can!

Yohan Debauque - Léo Maurin - Second of the stage - F16
We got off to a bad start, which was quite complicated. Well done to Gurvan for having a good feeling after Le Prêcheur: he was really faster than everyone else!  We lost a few minutes and it was a bit hard on our morale to hold on in that calm while others got away. We finished second behind Lou and Thomas, catching our Dutch rivals just before the finish line, on the last mile. It's quite fun, even after 2 hours of racing, to motivate yourself and tell yourself that nothing's decided yet! 

It's going to be hard to catch Thomas and Lou, who already have a lead of almost 20 minutes, as if to say: forget that you haven't got a chance, just go for it! Anything can happen in a race!

Gurvan Bontemps and Benjamin AMiot - Stickerman - French Caribbean - F18
I don't think it's such a big lead. We have to give the runners-up 10 to 12 minutes: that's great, we're happy. We're going to be first overall, we've got a few minutes' lead, but on the Martinique Cata Raid, nothing is ever decided. We know that and we've done it enough not to claim victory too soon. We prefer to be in our current position, but there's still a lot to play for. There are still 4 days to go, and a lot can happen.

We're all the more pleased because yesterday things didn't go our way, we were hanging on, we were in the lead after the Perle and with 800 metres to go, the race was slipping away from us, so we're happy to have found this way out today for the transition. But we know that the Martinique Cata Raid is full of pitfalls and traps, so we're going to have to stay focused on the next stages.

Nicolas Gillet Socoveam Anmizi - 3rd of the stage - F18
We wanted to head out to sea hoping to find some wind, but in the end we went ashore hoping to get through and found ourselves at the back of the pack. After that, we made it back into the bay of Saint Pierre and we're sailing really fast! Clearly, we made some bad tactical choices. But after a tack offshore, we made it back! We finished third, which isn't too bad, as we're still in the leading pack.

There are some big stages left. I hope that the leg to Saint Lucia will go ahead, because it's a leg that suits us well. Tomorrow, we leave for Le Marin with a home finish: we're going to attack!  But the Martinique Cata Raid is long... we didn't break anything, we're in good shape, we're going to rest and tomorrow is another day.

Yes, I found this stage harder than yesterday's! Yesterday it was our conditions, and we know how to do that. But we found ourselves behind and it was hard to come back. We've come a long way back and Nico (Poix - bowman) did a great job today!