The Vendée Globe site in Les Sables d'Olonne, October 22.

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LOIC VENANCE / AFP

Since the Head of State's intervention on Wednesday evening, the message appears as soon as you go to the home page of the official Vendée Globe site in Les Sables d'Olonne in Vendée.

"In order to try to stem the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the President of the Republic announced on Wednesday evening the establishment, by the Government, of a containment throughout the territory of the Republic in within the framework of the decreed state of health emergency, for a period of one month.

Consequently, the Vendée Globe is implementing the closure of the Village, which will take effect on Thursday 29 October at 11.59 p.m. ”

All week long, there were still many people on the pontoons and in the village.

People had to book in advance to come to the site.

The skippers, for their part, have the obligation to confine themselves from Sunday.

A departure without an intended audience

For the start, scheduled for November 8 in Les Sables d'Olonne, Yves Auvinet, president of the SAEM Vendée Globe, was pessimistic on Wednesday evening on the

France Bleu Loire Océan site

 : “That's folded!

The start of the Vendée Globe will be without an audience, that seems obvious.

We must be clear.

For the Vendée Globe, there is no question of deviating from what the president has announced.

It's a shame, but given what is happening, we must be reasonable, and react according to the pandemic conditions which are sufficiently problematic at present.

We should have more during the day.

Until yesterday, the gauge for the start was 5,000 people on the Chaume side, 4,000 on the Sables d'Olonne side and 5,000 at sea.

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  • Covid 19

  • Sables d'Olonne

  • Confinement

  • Sail

  • Coronavirus

  • Vendée Globe

  • Sport