Jérémie Beyou has won the 2014 Solitaire du Figaro

"If you’d told me I would win the Solitaire three times, I wouldn’t have believed it. I still haven’t really taken it on board. I’m going to try to enjoy this leg win and overall victory. I’m really proud to be up there with legends like Philou, Mich' and Jean…" Poupon, Desjoyeaux and Le Cam are the three ocean racing legends that Jérémie Beyou has just joined as a three-time winner of the Solitaire du Figaro. The Big Three are now the Big Four.

 

This lunchtime (Wednesday) in Cherbourg, Jérémie Beyou (Maître Coq) managed to finish just a few seconds ahead of Adrien Hardy (Agir) and Corentin Douguet (Un Maillot pour la vie). Corentin Douguet, who also hopes to compete in the 2016 Vendée Globe was the trailblazer in this fourth and final leg, leading for much of the race which started in les Sables d'Olonne.

3 podium places and one leg win in four races…

An extraordinary achievement! Jérémie Beyou was on every podium in this 2014 race. Third in each of the first three legs, winner of the fourth and overall winner! An astonishing result that two men could have stopped, if they had not suffered from damage forcing them to retire from one leg, Fabien Delahaye (Macif) and Yann Eliès (Groupe Queguiner-Leucemie Espoir). They too were both excellent in this final leg (Eliès 5th, Delahaye 10th). Yann Eliès can be very proud of his Solitaire: he was leading the race, when his boat was dismasted in the first leg. He won the second, finished second in the third and fifth in the final leg. He got up there with the nine leg wins in the Solitaire achieved by a certain Alain Gautier (Generali), who incidentally finished eleventh in this final leg and 16^th overall.  A result that is quite decent for such a comeback, even if the winner of the 1992-1993 Vendée Globe had hoped to do a little better.
Yann Eliès and Jérémie Beyou have in any case left their mark on the 2014 Solitaire. A good sign as they look forward to the next Vendée Globe.

In short:
. Leg 4: Les Sables d'Olonne-Cherbourg : 1st Jérémie Beyou, 2nd Adrien Hardy, 3rd Corentin Douguet
. Final overall rankings for the 2014 Solitaire: 1st Jérémie Beyou, 2nd Corentin Horeau 17 minutes behind, 3rd Charlie Dalin 25 minutes behind. (www.vendeeglobe.org)