138 sailors will start La Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe on Sunday November 6th. Four solo skippers in that huge fleet are out to defend the class titles they won four years ago on the 2018 edition of the race. Francis Joyon in returns in the Ultim 32/23 (IDEC Sport), Yoann Richomme in Class40 (Paprec-Arkea), Paul Meilhat (Biotherm) in IMOCA and Armel Tripon (Les P'tits Doudous) in Ocean Fifty. Ten days before the start, they explain their motivations and estimate their chances of a double.
Since the creation of La Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe, only three sailors have achieved the double in the same class: Laurent Bourgnon in the ORMA trimaran (in 1994 and 1998), Roland Jourdain in IMOCA (in 2006 and 2010) and Franck-Yves Escoffier in the 50-foot multihull (in 2002 and 2006). Two other skippers have won twice in a row, but in different classes: Ellen MacArthur (in a 50-foot monohull in 1998 then in IMOCA in 2002) and Lionel Lemonchois (in ORMA in 2006 then in Multi 50 in 2010). For this 12th edition an unprecedented four sailors return to defend their titles.
