Volvo Ocean Race: The longed-for stage win

After the doldrums thriller in Newport, in which Team Brunel was caught by Spanish Team Mapfre shortly before the finish, skipper Bouwe Bekking and his team were able to prevail in the battle of nerves off Cardiff. The Dutch team won the ninth leg by 4 minutes and 5 seconds ahead of their compatriots from Team AkzoNobel. Team Brunel completed the 3300 nautical mile leg from Newport to Cardiff in 8 days, 8 hours, 39 minutes and 53 seconds.

The duel between the yellow and the purple boat had broken out soon after the start in Newport. Both teams had taken the lead of the fleet with an early strategic decision and were racing towards Europe at record speeds. After two stage wins and a second place, Team Brunel is now aiming for the next stage port of Gothenburg and finally the finish and home port of The Hague with new-found chances of overall victory, which many record participants no longer believed Bekking and his crew were capable of after their weak start to the race around the world.

Team Brunel had to fight, fear and fight again for this stage win, which was particularly longed for after the narrow defeat on stage 8. Hours before crossing the finish line, it was Simeon Tienpont's team AkzoNobel, which was narrowly beaten in the end in the struggle with the strong tide and the flat winds, that was once again in the lead. The boats had sailed partly backwards in the Bristol Channel before the current and wind were with them again. A few nautical miles before the finish line, Brunel managed to overtake AkzoNobel.

For this stage win, Team Brunel not only collects double points - like all teams - but also a bonus point for the triumph. With 15 points, the Dutch team is now well ahead of the two leaders in the overall standings. "We are happy with the result," said Bekking in Cardiff, "it was our goal to beat the two red boats. And of course it's nice to win and get the bonus point. Plus a nice fight with AkzoNobel at the end. We are a happy team."

However, the record eight-time participant immediately turned his attention to the future and said: "The aim now is to look ahead. We have closed the gap to Mapfre and Dongfeng, and winning remains our main task." The Dutch team had to fight hard for this newly created opportunity. However, they also received "shooting support" from their opponents. Firstly from AkzoNobel: with its formidable performance, the team ensured that the Dongfeng crew could not finish higher than third place on this 3300 nautical mile stretch from Newport to Cardiff. Dongfeng and Mapfre, who will probably only reach the finish line in fifth place, have robbed themselves of the chance to win the stage with their early strategic decision in favour of a northerly course. The red boats were never able to make up the lost ground on the Cardiff course.

After narrowly losing the top duel with Brunel, AkzoNobel at least has the consolation of having set a new 24-hour record for the Volvo Ocean Race on this leg with an incredible 602.5 nautical miles. "It was an incredible race," said AkzoNobel skipper Simeon Tienpont in Cardiff, "I'm incredibly proud of my crew. We fought the whole leg and we are happy with second place. We enjoyed setting a record that we hope will be hard to beat. It was a stage full of emotion and we're already looking forward to the final two stages. We've done incredibly well since Melbourne. From then on, we scored more points than Dongfeng and Mapfre. So the confidence is there. And we really enjoy that as a crew. We'll just keep fighting like we did on this stage."

The scenario for the final spurt of the 13th edition of the most famous team race around the world could hardly be more exciting: Charles Caudrelier's Dongfeng Race Team leads the overall standings by one point ahead of Mapfre (if the Spaniards finish fifth this morning). Bouwe Bekking's Team Brunel is only three points behind Dongfeng and two behind Mapfre ahead of the last two stages to Gothenburg and The Hague, where the huge Volvo Ocean Race fan community celebrated the stage win and the advance of their compatriots. Everything is set for a grand European finale to the round-the-world race.

The mathematical overall standings should Mapfre reach the finish shortly as the fifth boat and the last two boats arrive in the current order:

1. Dongfeng Race Team, 60 points
2. Team Mapfre, 59 points
3. Team Brunel, 57 points
4. Team AkzoNobel, 48 points
5. Vestas 11th Hour Racing, 36 points
6. Team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag, 29 points
7. Team Turn the Tide on Plastic, 26 points

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