Ireland’s Tom Dolan, skipper of Smurfit Kappa-Kingspan, passed the Sisargas Islands off the village of Malpica on the rugged NW corner of Spain first of the 36 boat fleet this Monday afternoon.
Dolan collected the five minute time bonus for winning Stage 2 of La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec’s Intermediate Sprint.
He positioned himself slightly more to the north, offshore of his nearest rivals and was rewarded with a small lead which he extended to lead around the rocky islets at 15:19hrs.
Second was Alexis Thomas (Wings of the Ocean) 18 minutes later – gaining a three minutes bonus with Gaston Morvan (Région Bretagne-CMB Performance) third earning one minute off his elapsed time for the stage.
Dolan went into this second stage of three with a deficit of 5 minutes and 31 seconds behind Basile Bourgnon (EDENRED) who was the overall race leader when the stage started from Gijón.
Bourgnon was ten miles behind Dolan late Monday afternoon whilst Lois Berrehar (Skipper MACIF 2022) – who lay second overall – was seventh at seven miles behind Dolan who won the first leg of La Solitaire Paprec 3.
Early this Monday evening it was very much a speed race on a close reaching course which will see the fleet diverge away from the Spanish coast and the stronger currents. They still have 350 miles to sail to Royan which lies to the north of entry to the Gironde estuary.
