The final phase of the Volvo Ocean Race serves up spectacularly exciting sport! On the home straight to Gothenburg, Bouwe Bekking's Team Brunel and Xabí Fernandez' Team Mapfre are engaged in a thrilling duel. It's almost impossible for fans to look away, because there's more at stake than just the stage win. When Team Brunel caught up with the Spaniards' red boat for the first time on Thursday morning at 11.02 a.m. after a furious race to catch up and established itself permanently in the lead from 11.39 a.m. after several changes of position, the comments from observers and supporters of both teams went into overdrive as they continued to wrestle with each other as if they were arm wrestling and squeezed every last tenth of speed out of their boats, which had already travelled over 45,000 nautical miles.
The experts at the Volvo Ocean Race headquarters know how to captivate the fans with their comments. When Brunel started to overtake Mapfre, New Zealander Conrad Colman said: "Brunel is just moments away from dealing Mapfre a killer blow. This is crazy. It's never happened before in the Volvo Ocean Race." This refers to the "battle" for overall victory, which is being fought at the highest level by the three boats leading the overall classification. "These could be the moments," says Coleman, "when the entire outcome of the race is decided."
At speeds of around 17 to 20 knots, Team Brunel and Mapfre were racing towards Gothenburg in the early hours of Thursday afternoon, while Charles Caudrelier's Dongfeng Race Team was still chasing its overnight deficit of almost six nautical miles. Worse still for the French-Chinese team, which had led the overall standings before the end of this tenth of eleven legs: AkzoNobel is currently in third place on the podium. And it doesn't look as if Simeon Tienpont and his crew are going to give it up so easily, given the Dutch team's fast split times. Brunel and Mapfre are more than happy with the situation. They will be hoping that AkzoNobel will keep Dongfeng at bay while they themselves fight for the stage win and the position of the new number one in the overall classification before the final sprint to The Hague. What the Dutch fans want in the final finish harbour of the Volvo Ocean Race should be clear: both Dutch boats on the podium.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
