www.Sail-Search.com: Frédéric Duthil crossed the finish line at 17:24 and 30 seconds on Monday the 11th of August to win the third and final leg of the 39th edition of La Solitaire du Figaro from Cherbourg to Aber Wrac'h. The skipper of Distinxion Automobiles covered the 470-mile course 71 hours, 23 minutes and 30 seconds at an average 6.6 knots. It was a duel for the 2nd and 3rd podium spots 5 minutes later; in an exiting match race right to the finish line, Gildas Morvan (Cercle Vert) beat Laurent Pellecuer (Dr Valnet-Aromathérapie) to second place by just 21 seconds. Nicolas Troussel (Financo), who leads on the overall rankings, is expected to finish in the next couple of hours to take the overall time win for the Solitaire, his second in 3 years.

Experiencing a victory is always and amazing thing and it must even be more so when it is along the beautifully rugged and rock strewn coastline of Northern Brittany. The finish line, set inside the Aber Wrac'h, one of the natural inlets that provide shelter to sailors along the infamously dangerous coast, provided a difficult but dramatic backdrop to the finish of the race on Monday evening.

The pedigree of these three winning skippers is undeniable; Fred Duthil won two legs last year, one in Crosshaven and another in the Sables d'Olonne, Laurent Pellecuer savoured victory in Ireland back in 2005 and Gildas Morvan has had four wins, one just last week in Cherbourg. The three solo sailors fought every inch of the way right down to the finish line, including a luffing match right up to the finish for 2nd place!

The 470-mile course was like a giant windward leeward race with 2-day upwind beat against in strong winds and currents to the Brittany Buoy weather mark out in the Atlantic and a fast downhill spinnaker sprint to the finish. "It was the toughest upwind beat of my life," declared Duthil last night. Upon rounding the mark, the three leaders managed to detach themselves from the pack today and break away on the long and tactical ride west to finish. Duthil, waving from the bow as he crossed the finish line declared that it was just "never-ending, so it is fantastic to win the leg. I really had to focus hard on this leg and I realised I could win it 10 miles from the finish and just dug deeper and deeper to get here. What is funny is that Nico (Financo) wins the first leg and gets the 1st in the overall ranking, Gildas (Cercle Vert) wins the second leg and gets second overall and I win the third leg and take third place overall."

The time differences for the first three come down to very little, with Gildas Morvan crossing 20 seconds ahead of Laurent Pellecuer and just over 7 minutes behind the winner. Erwan Tabarly (Athema) finishes in 4th after a great race that has seen him in up with the leaders right from the start, but looses his third place on the over leader board to Duthil. Nicolas Troussel, who holds the overall lead in terms of time, is expected to cross the finish line within the next couple of hours to take the overall win on the 2008 edition of La Solitaire du Figaro.

Interview with Frédéric Duthil – winner in Aber Wrac'h

This must be a nice win for you?

"I am really, really happy! I really had to look for this one, I pushed and pushed and pushed…never giving up. I just had to follow each little wind shift; I can tell you that this leg was much harder than it looked. The upwind beat was incredibly long and hard, I think the hardest in my life. Psychologically, you had to stay on top of things.."

At the end of the day, there is a happy ending?

"It is funny: Nicolas (Troussel) wins the first leg and is going to win the general, Gildas (Morvan) wins the second leg and is going to be second and then I win the third and am going to be third overall."

It was an epic finish with the three of you. When did you realize you where going to win?

"When I reached the Livinter plateau! Well, really, about 10 miles before the finish line, when we lowered the spinnaker, just then. It was so close and so tough, on the whole leg. I could see Gildas Morvan and Laurent Pellecuer just behind me and they were chasing me down, but I kept between them both, to mark them so unless something broke, I was able to mark them and keep ahead. I just kept going to the finish."

At the end of the day it was like an Olympic course, did your windsurfing past come to mind?

"Yes it did a bit! It was a long windward leeward, the longest I have ever done! Playing tactics up to a mark that is 2 miles away I can generally do, but then over 300 miles is something else!"