Anyone else planning to follow this?
The Vendee Globe solo round-the-world yacht race is, imho, one of the truly great sporting challenges.
It gets underway in a couple of hours. Live coverage already on BT Sport 1.
The latest generation of boats are absolute rockets, and sailing one of these flat-out 24/7 for around 70+ days through the desolate wild southern ocean, knowing that fatal disaster could strike at any second, but unable to let up for even a moment if you want to be a contender... I'm in total awe of them.
It's also a fascinating tactical battle. Helps if you understand the nature of sailing, but even if you're clueless as to what, say, VMG is, it's great to watch things unfold on the various websites and apps.
Also a Brit has a really good chance of finally beating the French this time. Alex Thomson finished third and second in the last two races (2012 and 2016), and his new boat is a thing of beauty (starts sailing about 25 seconds in…)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evyi6Yy8C1w
There are also three other British skippers in the race – all women (Miranda Mellon, Sam Davies and Pip Hare). While none of them are realistically podium-finishers (barring some serious whittling down of the favourites through damage etc!), it's great to see a sport where men and women compete equally.
Allez Alex!
The Vendee Globe solo round-the-world yacht race is, imho, one of the truly great sporting challenges.
It gets underway in a couple of hours. Live coverage already on BT Sport 1.
The latest generation of boats are absolute rockets, and sailing one of these flat-out 24/7 for around 70+ days through the desolate wild southern ocean, knowing that fatal disaster could strike at any second, but unable to let up for even a moment if you want to be a contender... I'm in total awe of them.
It's also a fascinating tactical battle. Helps if you understand the nature of sailing, but even if you're clueless as to what, say, VMG is, it's great to watch things unfold on the various websites and apps.
Also a Brit has a really good chance of finally beating the French this time. Alex Thomson finished third and second in the last two races (2012 and 2016), and his new boat is a thing of beauty (starts sailing about 25 seconds in…)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evyi6Yy8C1w
There are also three other British skippers in the race – all women (Miranda Mellon, Sam Davies and Pip Hare). While none of them are realistically podium-finishers (barring some serious whittling down of the favourites through damage etc!), it's great to see a sport where men and women compete equally.
Allez Alex!
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