Vandaag is de Défi Wind in Gruissan Frankrijk van start gegaan met 1000 windsurfers in ideale tramontana omstandigheden. Onder de deelnemers ook enkele Nederlandse windsurfers waarvan op dit moment nog geen resultaten beschikbaar zijn. Tijdens de Defi hebben 100 surfers een gps om voor de live wedstrijd, één Nederlander heeft er ook eentje, Mike Hessels. Hij is dus tijdens de heats te volgen.

Hierbij het verslag van de eerste race van dit unieke evenement.

The first start of this tenth edition of the Defi Wind has been given today in exceptional windy conditions. At 15:25, under a 20 to 25 knots tramontane (local North West wind) 1 000 competitors have crossed the starting line of the first round. The winner today is Pierre Mortefon, a young French rider from Fanatic/North who made his first steps into the PWA World Cup last year, who managed to undertake this incredible nautical marathon of 40 miles in less than 40 minutes.

A very windy leg

After two very quiet editions with no wind, the Tramontane has finally accepted to honour Gruissan and its windsurfers, with more than 25 knots today. Pierre Mortefon, attending his ninth Défi Wind, signed today his best performance ever on the event. Back to the beach, Pierre explained: “The race went really fast. It was very windy and it picked-up really quickly! It is incredible to be on the water with 999 other windsurfers. Once jibing, when you look at this amazing amount of sails, you realize the situation! I was quite fast on the final round and managed to overtake Bieuzy (Mauffret) who was in the lead from the start!” Bieuzy, who finished second, confided: “I'm a bit disappointed as I was in first position during three quarters of the leg. I was worried about the wind to rise as I had quite big equipment compared to the others. Then Pierre overtook me but I am still very satisfied with my race!” Julien Quentel logically completed this first podium.

An outstanding equipment to follow the race live

Pierre, Bieuzy, Anders Bringdal and 97 other windsurfers are lucky as they are equipped with a tiny jewel of technology: a 'tracker' allowing us to know their position and speed in real time through a community platform of geo-localization: MyGeoLive. Thanks to the participation of Microsoft and Dot Vision, the entire world can follow 100 challengers on the website (www.defiwind.com) and on social networks. David Boulanger, co-founder of Dot Vision explains how this extraordinary tool operates and tells us more about the possibilities it offers on such an event. “MyGeoLive is a geo-localization interface working in real time. A GPS module sends data like riders’ position and speed instantly on the web. This year, 100 "trackers" are distributed to several categories of windsurfers: professionals, amateurs, young and elders. Then the replay on the website allows the competitors to compare their ways and speeds.” For sure tonight, many will connect to the Défi Wind website to analyze their course and then challenge the pros during next rounds.

First leg podium :

1° Pierre Mortefon

2° Bieuzy Mauffret

3° Julien Quentel

1st women : Valérie Ghibaudo

For more information: www.defiwind.com and www.facebook.com/LeDefi