This is the second win for the solo sailor from Plougasnou in the French Finisterre.

Frederic 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-Aromatherapie) to second place by just 21 seconds.

* Interview with the winner of La Solitaire du Figaro:Nicolas Troussel : "The fruit of many years of hard work"

Nicolas Troussel, the skipper of Financo wins La Solitaire du Figaro for the second time. He joins some of France's greatest solo sailors in the annals of the history of the race; only Jean Le Cam, Michel Desjoyeaux and Philippe Poupon can count more wins...

Did you not worry about your decision of heading out to the North?

Of course...it was a mistake to go around Aurigny the wrong way. It was quite testing racing behind everyone else and I had to work really hard to catch up and stay in contact with the others. When you are behind you force things more. I broke equipment, my wind vane, which meant that I no longer had the wind mode on the autopilot and ended up having to helm the whole way. This last leg was incredibly tough: 300 miles upwind, 150 downwind. The conditions were not easy, but once we rounded he buoy it the wind was with us and I knew that I could not loose that much ground sailing with the spinnaker up, I knew that my time advantage would give me enough leeway if nothing broke of course.

What have been the highlights for you?

I was not as good on this leg, that is for sure, but finishing first and then second on the last two, I think is really quite remarkable. I am not someone who shows his feelings all that much. I don't think it has actually all sunk in yet. It is my third big victory on Financo (two Figaros' and a Trophee BPE) and I am not bored yet!

Do you realise that you have just one victory away from the legendary sailors like Le Cam, Desjoyeaux and Poupon?

"You are all the judges of that. I do not ask myself anything. I just hope to earn my place here and continue to sail and enjoy being on the water. I am not going to get big headed and plan to carry on doing what I enjoy most. Right now I want to get out of my foul weather gear, sit down and say job well done. Objective achieved, because this Solitaire was the season's main objective."

What would be your next goal and dream?

The Vendee Globe. I hope that I have proven to a lot of people that I can do this round the world race and can't wait to start up a campaign to be at the start line in four years time. Dreams come true, I used to dream about doing La Solitaire...and now it is hard to actually believe that I have won it twice. But I will be back next year of course; I love this race too much!

Provisional top ten rankings

1. Nicolas Troussel, Financo
2. Gildas Morvan, Cercle Vert
3. Frederic Duthil, Distinxion Automobile
4. Erwan Tabarly, Athema
5. Jeanne Gregoire, Banque Populaire
6. Christopher Pratt, DCNS 97
7. Nicolas Berenger, KONE Ascenseurs
8. Gildas Mahe, Le Comptoir Immobillier
9. Laurent Pellecuer, Docteur Valnet aromatherapie
10. Thierry Chabagny, SUZUKI Automobiles

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