Yannick Bestaven at the finish of the last Route du rhum Arnaud Philpre
The Rochelais was injured falling on his bike and will have to stay on the ground for many weeks.
It’s over the beautiful photos of a sailor (everything except on vacation) in Cascais in Portugal. After three weeks of sunny training, the sky suddenly darkened for Yannick Bestaven. During a bike ride, his rear wheel slipped when braking in a downhill corner. And the winner of the last Vendée Globe could not avoid the violent fall. He got up with a fractured collarbone and a few broken ribs…
Repatriated to his home in Charente-Maritime, Bestaven was taken care of by the medical staff of Stade Rochelais and is condemned to stay on land for long weeks for a convalescence which promises to be painful. “The collarbone is clearly fractured but does not require an operation. Some ribs are seriously damaged. It is clearly not possible to start a race in 3 weekstestified the sailor. It is a terrible disappointment to have had this accident. We were in a good dynamic of preparing for this season in doubles and making Maître CoQ V more reliable. That’s how it is, you have to accept it. We will have to be patient to come back stronger and ready for the scheduled programme: the Fastnet Race, the Azimut challenge and of course the Transat Jacques Vabre. »
A blow
For the very next race on the program, the Guyader Bermudes 1000 Race, which will start on May 7 from Brest (for a finish also in Brest after 1000 miles of double-handed sailing), it is the technical and sporting project director who will replace Yannick Bestaven aboard the monohull Maître CoQ along with Julien Pulvé, the co-skipper. The blow is hard for the sailor 19th in the last Route du Rhum but the main meeting of the season, the Transat Jacques-Vabre, is not scheduled until next November. What a priori give him time to recover.
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