This is race leader Charlie Dalin on the French live this morning, "I haven’t actually properly realised that the arrival is in 36 hours or so, I’m so concentrated on my race, my trajectory, my sail changes, I’ve been so long at sea that I just can’t seem to get my head around the fact that the finish is so soon. I’m just uber concentrated on the next coming hours, all the zones left to cross through, that’s more or less my state of mind at the moment.
Charlie Dalin To Yann Elies:
I’m recalling the happy memories of winning the Transat Jacques Vabres with you in 2019, what positive thoughts and recollections which will be helping me to make the right choices and right manoeuvres from now until the end of the race.
The finishing line is still a little bit of a way to go, I’ve got to get through tonight first, but thank you Jacques for having watched over me, and all the others, throughout this race. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in the Race Direction team once again once I’ve crossed the line.
I am definitely in race mode, in my playground! I think I know the Bay of Biscay better than my own back garden (he laughs) it’s a sailing zone I’ve known for a good ten years now, probably the zone I know best, a zone I have criss-crossed in lots of different directions, at various times, like during the Figaro, so yes tonight does feel like it will be similar to the last night of the last stage of the Solitaire"
Yann Elies:
" I feel almost more stressed than Charlie! You can tell he really is in his element, in the last 36 hours of the race, in Figaro mode, he’s right in the action, he’s had time to reflect. Whereas for us, we need to be patient, to wait and see what happens right up until the first crossing of the line. Let sport do its magic!
As Charlie was saying, you have to apply yourself 100% right up until the end, and concentrate really hard on the final sprint finish, because every minute counts."