“I thought until yesterday that there was no way but…”, Richomme still believes in his chances of overtaking Dalin

This tenth edition of the legendary sailing race is hectic: Charlie Dalin and Yoann Richomme are engaged in a fierce duel at the head of the Vendée Globe. Second, the skipper of Paprec-Arkéa is gradually catching up, with around five days to go. He will fight until the end.

The wind is turning, and so is confidence. Less than a week before the arrival in Les Sables-d’Olonne (between next Tuesday and Wednesday), Yoann Richomme has perhaps not yet quite said his last word in the suspenseful duel that he is facing. book in the lead with Charlie Dalin.

Second after having held the race lead for a long time in recent weeks, the skipper of the boat Paprec Arkéa is still bow-to-bow with his opponent. Perhaps a little more than he could let on, Wednesday with RMC Sport.

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“I should be able to get close, apparently.”

“I thought, until last night (Wednesday), that there was really no way of catching up. Except that in fact, I have been a little behind Charlie since,” he corrects this. Thursday for Ouest France. “And I find that in fact, he arrives a little early on the ridge. So, he stumbles into the soft, apparently. That’s what I see. So, the routings, normally, give a fairly considerable rapprochement between me and Charlie…”

If he still seems capable of catching up – at 7 p.m. this Thursday, Dalin and Richomme are separated by 172.83 nautical miles (320.08 kilometers) – the Fréjusien is still far from claiming victory in this tenth edition of the legendary race under sail. “I’m always wary of these routings. I’m not saying that I won’t be able to catch him completely. But in any case, I should be able to get close, apparently. So, I’m looking forward to seeing that. (…) Afterwards, I think that between getting closer and doubling it, there is a big margin.”

Richomme promises in any case to “send the watts to try to recover it, to catch up as much as possible”, to have no regrets. “While he has all the stress of remaining first,” he says at the edge of this breathtaking finish.