Saint-Nazaire (AFP)

Sailor Armel Le Cléac'h, winner of the last Vendée Globe, won his third Solitaire du Figaro on Saturday at Saint-Nazaire after a race which was exceptionally cut off from his last stage due to lack of wind.

An incredibly calm sea, not a breath of wind and a motionless fleet: it is in this unusual setting that Armel Le Cléac'h raised his arms to the sky to celebrate his victory.

"There was really nothing there, no wind at all on the water, so the race committee made the right decision and I think there will be no competitor who will go to the race. 'against this decision,' commented the 43-year-old sailor aboard his boat Banque Populaire.

"It's tough, this Solitaire because it's been 20 years since I started on this circuit, the first was in 2000, I won in 2003, in 2010, in 2020, so it shows that we don't not necessarily win every year, far from it ", he added.

The sunset time, 8:12 p.m. Saturday, marked the ultimatum to wait for the wind and give the start of the fourth and last stage, according to the rules of the race.

Until the last minutes, the athletes stood ready in a palpable and silent tension, before seeing the prize list established at the end of the previous stage freeze.

Initially, the fourth stage was to consist of a loop around the island of Yeu, with a return planned to Saint-Nazaire on Sunday.

- "Pleasure of sailing" -

Armel Le Cléac'h won ahead of Frédéric Duthil (Technique Voile - Cabinet Bourhis Generali), who is only 10 minutes and 43 seconds behind the winner overall, after an intense third stage.

Then come Tom Laperche (Bretagne CMB Espoir), Adrien Hardy (Ocean Attitude) and the Irishman Tom Dolan (Smurfit Kappa).

With this final victory concluded in 10 days 1 hour and 26 minutes, Le Cléac'h enters the very closed circle of triple winners of the race, which was in its 51st edition.

He therefore joined Philippe Poupon (1982, 1985 and 1995), Michel Desjoyeaux (1992, 1998 and 2007), Jean Le Cam (1994, 1996 and 1999), Jérémie Beyou (2005, 2011 and 2014) and Yann Eliès (2012, 2013 and 2015), which, also at the start of this 51st edition, was ranked 8th.

"I lived a very difficult Route du Rhum, I came close to a big disaster", recalled Armel Le Cléac'h about the famous transatlantic race contested in 2018.

At the helm of a giant maxi-multihull capable of + flying +, Le Cléac'h had experienced the worst when his boat was destroyed during a capsize off the Azores.

Since then, a new multihull has been under construction and its launch is scheduled for April 2021 with the objective of the Route du Rhum 2022.

"Rediscovering the pleasure of sailing, the pleasure of racing, it's really great to have succeeded in two years to find this very high level, it will really get me started with Banque Populaire for the rest of the program with the Ultimate which will be launched in the spring, ”he said, referring to his future plans.

© 2020 AFP