The majority of the Team Volvo for life athletes are busy preparing for the second European stage of the ISAF World Cup Series which kicks off this week in Hyères, in the south of France.
Paul Goodison, Nick Dempsey, Helena Lucas and the new 470 team of Sarah Ayton and Saskia Clark will all be making their way over land and sea to reach Hyères in time for the start of the event onFriday the 23rd of April.
The Semaine Olympique Francaise, or simply Hyères as it is commonly known, is one of the major regattas in the international Olympic sailing circuit and the fourth of seven events in the 2009-10 ISAF Sailing World Cup series.
Team Volvo for life athletes have performed well at Hyères over the years. Paul has won the event twice, with two bronze medals and a fourth place finish. Sarah Ayton has two silver and two bronze medals from previous years, Helena Lucas has two bronze medals and has finished fourth twice while Nick Dempsey has come away from France with a silver and a bronze medal.
Of course the recent disruption to air travel caused by the volcanic ash over Northern Europe has grounded nearly all flights, and so our athletes have had to make alternative arrangements to get themselves and their equipment to the South of France.
Paul Goodison has already had to alter his plans.
“I’ll be driving to Hyères in my very comfortable Volvo XC70 and I am so glad to have it.Saskia and I were supposed to fly out first thing this morning direct to the South of France ahead of the next World Cup event of the season, Hyères.
My boat went out to France over the weekend and the initial plan was to fly out on the 20th April meet up with the Laser by the time it got there. Of course, with the disruption caused by the volcano in Iceland this hasn’t been possible.
So instead of flying down, we are having an extra day’s training at home here in Weymouth, then we will be taking a cross channel ferry first thing tomorrow morning, then driving down France to reach Hyères. So during the weekend we saw how the situation with the volcanic ash was developing, and it soon became obvious how unlikely it was that the planes would be back up and running again in time to arrive at the event. So we luckily got booked on a ferry.
Driving through France may take a little longer than if we flew, but to be honest I am looking forward to it. These long road trips remind me a lot of the old days, when I was just starting out in my professional career. I didn’t have quite as good car in those days though!
Over the weekend I went to Hayling Island to take part in only my second Laser qualifier event of the year. I won two out of the three races to take the overall win, which has really boosted my confidence ahead of Hyères. It’s been a good start to the qualifiers for me, with the win here at Hayling Island coming just a couple of weeks after winning the Laser qualifying in Plymouth at the end of March. One of my main rivals Nick Thompson pushed me hard at Plymouth, but I managed to win four out of the five races and Nick had to settle for second place.
These two results have been great since I haven’t spent a massive amount of time in the Laser this year, and these performances have come just at the right time ahead of Hyères.
This event is a special one for me as it was one of the first big international events I won. I have had some really tough races against some top quality opponents, and the event has brought out the best in me in recent years. It will be interesting to race in an international regatta again and I am looking forward to checking out how the rest of the international competitors are getting on in this early stage of the European season.
So Saskia and I are having one more day here in Weymouth before loading up the Volvo and heading for what hopefully will be a successful week of competition.”
To keep up to date with all the latest news and results from Hyères look out for our updates on this site from Friday.
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