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Roland Jourdain aboard Veolia Environnement leader of the IMOCA world championship and winner of the 9th Route du Rhum – la Banque Postale.

Following the first edition of the race (1978), Michel Malinovsky wrote, “Only winning is beautiful.” Roland could add to that, “And it’s even more beautiful when it comes after a real battle.” Four years ago, Jean le Cam reminded everyone at the finish (28 minutes behind Roland Jourdain) that if you wanted a great winner, you needed a great runner-up. This year the great runner-up is Armel Le Cléac’h, who in Pointe-à-Pitre put the finishing touches to a magnificent race and a remarkable season.

Bilou has won this wonderful transatlantic race for the second time

Roland is proud of his race and quite rightly so, as it was quite outstanding. He established a perfect trajectory, made the right weather choices and his tactics left no door open to his rivals. Who better to judge his performance than Armel Le Cléac’h: “Bilou was that much better than everyone else. He dominated the race practically from start to finish. From the moment he took the lead, he kept it right up to the finish.”

As for Armel, he has just taken his Brit Air to second place for the third time in a major ocean race, the Artemis Transat behind Loïck Peyron, the Vendée Globe behind Michel Desjoyeaux and now the Route du Rhum.

Marc Guillemot, the current world champion achieved a fine third place aboard Safran. Winner of the Transat Jacques Vabre, third in the Vendée Globe, Marc is never away from the podium and his boat, the precursor of the new PRB, Virbac-Paprec 3 and Foncia, is still just as competitive.

The boats from the generation of the 2008 Vendée Globe were up at the front of this Route du Rhum. Proof that maturity contributes to success in the IMOCA class. But we certainly need to keep an eye on the new boats, which were not far behind. Jean-Pierre Dick on his new Virbac-Paprec 3, which finished right behind Marc.

He too remained determined throughout, in spite of his many electrical faults and other teething problems. In any case in this first major race for the new boat, he was able to learn a lot. The fact that the competitors were so close is good news too and we can already look forward to the next major IMOCA race, the Barcelona World Race. Just like Roland Jourdain in the Route du Rhum, Jean-Pierre Dick will also be aiming for a second win in a row.

By finishing fifth and sixth respectively, Vincent Riou aboard his new PRB and Michel Desjoyeaux at the helm of his new Foncia complete the success of the three new boats from this year. The generation of boats from the 2008 Vendée Globe, which took the first three places are feeling the pressure of the new boats.

The quality of the competition throughout this Route du Rhum- la Banque Postale shows that the evolution of the IMOCA fleet is carefully controlled and that the Class, which aims to achieve a balanced fleet with boats of a similar standard, and maintain a long-term vision, is on the right track, meaning that skippers and investors can feel confident.

While the new boats are lying in ambush, the new skippers, those racing in the Route du Rhum for the first time, were not far behind the most successful skippers in the IMOCA class.

Arnaud Boissières aboard Akena Vérandas raced practically all the way with Michel Desjoyeaux and sometimes was ahead of him. He lost out in the last few miles, but it was an enriching experience battling it out neck and neck with one of the leading figures in the Imoca class during the whole transatlantic race.

Christopher Pratt, 8th in this Route du Rhum, brings up the rear. He too was neck and neck with the top names for three-quarters of the race. On DCNS, this was an occasion for him to discover solo transatlantic racing aboard a 60-foot monohull. He finished without electricity and without any wind, but certainly displayed courage. This personal experience will make him even stronger as he will now know that he has his place up there with the best solo skippers and that his talent will do the rest.

We cannot talk about the Imoca world championship without mentioning Kito de Pavant, who was the major name missing from the final rankings in this Route du Rhum. Suffering from major mechanical problems, Kito was forced to retire. He has therefore lost his place at the top of the championship to Roland Jourdain, who was previously IMOCA world champion in 2001 and 2002.

Kito, today in fourth place in the championship, could recover in the Barcelona World Race, the non-stop double-handed round the world race without assistance. He will be facing Michel Desjoyeaux, who remains in second place in the Championship. Roland will not be taking part in the final event of the 2010 season, so the title could well be decided between these two skippers. But we will need to watch Jean-Pierre Dick, Alex Pella, Dee Caffari and Pachi Rivero, who are waiting on the sidelines, and maybe Alex Thomson, Dominique Wavre and Jean Le Cam could cause an upset.

Michel Desjoyeaux, the most successful solo skipper has not yet added the title of World Champion to his long list of achievements. As he is taking part in the Barcelona World Race he may pull it off this time.

All of these skippers will be heading for Barcelona for the start of the race on 31^st December 2010. Fifteen crews will be lining up. It looks like being a tough winter and we are going to have to wait another three months before we find out the name of the 2010 Imoca world champion.