There are longtime competitors in the elite Figaro Solo series in France who have never won a stage, let alone become overall winner. Yet they are still considered serious and newsworthy contenders who merit continuing and generous sponsorship.
But back in 2023, Tom Dolan won a leg. And most appropriately, it brought him back to Ireland, to Kinsale and the country he had left behind a dozen years earlier to seek fulfillment in the highly-specialised and ultra-competitive French solo sailing scene.
However, 2024 has put 2023's success – and previous Dolan successes too – in the shade. The 2024 Figaro Solo Paprec concluded early in the morning of Wednesday, September 11th, 2024 at La Turballe in southern Brittany. And after an exceptionally exhausting and stormy 717-mile final leg, Tom was so well-placed in the crowded first group sweeping across the line within five minutes of each other that he retained the overall lead he had established so convincingly in Stage 2.
This was by an unusually clear victory in the middle 515 mile stage, starting from Gijon in Spain and finishing in Royan in west France. The stress of then sailing the final longest and rough stage with only the lead to lose is beyond imagination, and even after a long night's sleep he could still couldn't really believe on Wednesday morning that he had won overall the day before. But he very definitely had.
