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The first retirement was announced on Tuesday at 16h30 by Philippe Monnet: "We have too many problems to solve on Sopra Group". The have had several gear failures, hence the decision to retire.

The first 48 hours was enormously demanding on the boats. The assessment was made that the six boats preferred to make a stop to repair or check for damage.

For Marc Guillemot (Biscuits the Trinitaine-TEAM Ethypharm), the "pit-stop" lasted 50 minutes in the night of Monday enabled them to repair the hoist.

For Belgacom, Jean-Luc Nélias had been obliged to choose an old sail following previous damage in April and therefore had a change of its mast. The made a few repairs and set off again around 16:30h.

As regards Bayer CropScience, there were unusual noises and 'cracks' which encouraged Fred Peutrec to be diverted towards Trinité/mer to check with l.architecte Nigel Irens if everything is still sound. They may decide to abandon the race entirely.

The other boats all also made stops to repair sails and other damage from the storm force winds they have been racing in for the first few days.

There remained still this Tuesday with 16h00 nearly 1 700 miles to be traversed. The wind is still blowing 20-25 knots, and so there is no break for the boats yet in this race.

Classement du mardi 28 mai 2002 à 16 00h locales (14 00h GMT)

Boat/Skipper/Distance to Finish (miles)

1 Fujifilm Loick Peyron 1688,6

2 Bonduelle Jean Le Cam 1720,4

3 Foncia Alain Gautier 1735,6

4 Biscuits La Trinitaine - Ethypharm Marc Guillemot
1850,1

5 Groupama Franck Cammas 1855,5

6 Belgacom Jean-Luc Nélias 1897,5

7 Banque Covefi Bertrand deBroc 1932,7

8 Bayer CropScience Frederic Le Peutrec 2016,1

9 Sopra Group Philippe Monnet 2041

10 Sergio Tacchini Karine Fauconnier 2055,6