We could have summed up Alinghi's last three days in a short sentence: two events in one weekend, two second places. But such a review would be incomplete without detailing the very first long classic race involving the TF35s (and won by a TF35) and the wild scenes produced shortly after the start of the Genève-Rolle-Genève. It would also be remiss not to mention the remarkable performance of Arnaud Psarofaghis, who took part as interim skipper of the New Zealand team engaged on the international SailGP circuit. After only a few hours of getting to grips with the 50-foot foiler, our co-skipper made a promising start in Italy and led their team to the gates of the final. But first, let's come back to Switzerland with Yves Detrey for the 3rd grand prix of the season, run over two days because of the Genève-Rolle on Saturday: "After taking the advantage in the five races on Friday, we are a little disappointed with our performance this Sunday. The wind was not as forecast and only allowed for two races, where we keep making mistakes. "Finishing 2nd in a grand prix is not the result we are aiming for, but day after day the general level of the fleet is rising. There are very good sailors on board each boat, who know how to take advantage of sailing alongside Realteam and us, who had a small lead. One thing is certain: it will be tough until the end of the season." Realteam wins this stage, Zoulou takes 3rd place. Florian Trüb: "It's great to be on board the TF35 in competition. We did our best in this new configuration without Arnaud. The conditions were not easy, especially on Saturday during the long race with small clouds of rain randomly bringing wind from the right and left. Anyway, it's good to be back on a foiler!" He continues about the "cold sweats" episode: "Just after the start of the Genève-Rolle, we suffered a big gust that surprised us with its strength. At that precise moment, there were four of us in the middle of the boat to furl the gennaker. We quickly climbed the nets to counterbalance! It was hot and we narrowly avoided capsizing the boat." Photo and video report on our social networks... Bryan Mettraux continues, talking about the key moments in this 56th Genève-Rolle-Genève: "We waited quite a bit for the expected wind, especially on the outward journey. There wasn't much of a gap at the beginning. With the wind coming in from behind, the TF35, D35 and M2 were fairly aligned. "We rounded Rolle's mark in 2nd position, 20 seconds behind Realteam. At the end of Rolle, we sailed really well and we took the lead. Then it became impossible for us to control all our competitors, and the width of the lake gives the teams many options! Ylliam and Zoulou (even though Zoulou were last at the Rolle mark) passed us by. We regained ground over the last two miles and we managed to gain a place to finish 2nd. Obviously, we would have preferred to win, but we are happy with this result and the way the boat behaved against the D35 in light winds." Zoulou, led by Erik Maris, signs for a nice victory, Spindrift completes the podium, while Realteam, our direct competitor, finished 6th. Note that the rankings of the two major races (Genève-Rolle and the Bol d'Or) will be added together to count as a single race. The result at the Bol d'Or will act as a decider in the event of a tie. We will therefore have to wait another week for the announcement of the provisional general classification for the first part of the season. See you at 10am on Saturday June 12 for the start of the 82nd Bol d'or Mirabaud! Podium for the Grand Prix de Mies after seven races (the worst score being removed from four races validated): 1st - Realteam: 11 points 2nd - Alinghi: 14 points 3rd - Zoulou: 17 points Click here for all the rankings Podium for the Genève-Rolle-Genève 1st - Zoulou: 3:27:33 2nd - Alinghi: 3:29:51 3rd - Spindrift: 3:30:47 Click here for the ranking including all boats To find out more tf35.org  //  ycg.ch/grg To learn more about the race monitoring system, the team composition and the TF35 Trophy in general, a summary of the event is here. #GoAlinghiGo  //  #TF35Trophy  //  #GRG21 Credit for photos © Loris von Siebenthal, JeanMiPhotographies and Seb Aubord

Great blue skies, dropping south-west and wavering Séchard winds served as the setting for this first of lake Léman two classic races in the D35 Trophy. After four hours and nine minutes of racing, Alinghi crossed the finish line in 6th position overall (5th among the D35s) in the 55th Genève-Rolle-Genève. The D35 Zen Too (3h57'), Eleven Sailing Team (4h03'), and the M1 Ladycat powered by Spindrift (4h04') took the podium in this event which is synonymous with a warm-up for the Bol d'Or. Bryan Mettraux, trimmer: "We made a good start in the south-west, which allowed us to be in the hunt by the time we got to near Nyon. Then there was the first transition where we hit the northerly wind in which we rounded the halfway mark at Rolle in 3rd position. "We attacked well on the way back to Geneva, but it was quite special. We went down with the new wind, we got stuck in no pression, until it came back again (as the D35 goes faster than the wind in this light conditions). At one point we had to cross the lake to stay in the pressure, but we didn't cross exactly at the right time. "There is always a sense of success being shared in these races. Zen Too managed to come back through the fleet and crossed at the right moment. It's part of the game and they played it well." With such light conditions in such a long race, would it be wise to wait patiently and then to launch the assault at the right moment ? Nils Frei, trimmer, gives his point of view: "We have a little more cards in hand in general when we are in front, but these are races where anything can happen, with reversals of situation and sometimes the pressure that comes from behind. But it's hard enough to predict! I think we do not want to be a team that sits back and says we will see after. Especially given that there are races that develop from the front and others where it pays to come back from behind." See you next week, June 15th at 10am, wind or not, for the start of the 81st Bol d'Or Mirabaud. Click here for all the results of the Genève-Rolle-Genève. To find out more d35trophy.com  // ycg.ch/geneve-rolle-geneve/ #GoAlinghiGo  //  #D35Trophy  //  #GRG19 To find out more about how to follow the racing, the team composition and the circuit in general, find the event recap by clicking here. Photo credits ©EP medias

The race committee had to resort to photo-finish to determine the winner of the 2017 Genève-Rolle-Genève, today on the Lake. Alinghi, who led the race virtually from start to finish, finished second in the final, just 20cm behind Swisscom. The nerves of the sailors were put to the test this afternoon, at this, the 53rd edition of the first of the two Lake Geneva season classics. Alinghi sailed a great race, staying ahead of their opponents, on the most part. Swisscom, nevertheless, pipped them to the line, thanks to some bold manoeuvres in the last few metres. "Overall, we are happy," said Nils Frei, shortly after crossing the finish line. "It was a real lake race, with turnarounds, little pressures here and there that we had to try to manage. We had a little concern about our timing at the start, we were not quite on it, but after that we were in the game, and we managed to cope very well with the changing wind." Tactician Nicolas Charbonnier believes he has aged ten years, so intense was the stress: "It was a beautiful Lake Geneva regatta with a few things, many of them tricky, for us to deal with. But we sailed well and I didn’t have to go up the rig to look for the wind pressure. Indeed, when sometimes we had no more wind, there was none anywhere! We just had to be patient.” Arnaud Psarofaghis also noted the stress of the race: "We did not have easy choices, and we did not always agree, but in the end we came together, correctly, and, up until the end, it was a very good fight with Swisscom." Yves Detrey, who is not known for being a big fan of long races, observed: "It's really tiring, not physically, but mentally. Decisions do not necessarily pay off right away; you have to wait and see how they will play out, which is really tough on the nerves. In addition, we had to be careful of the depth as we were often looking for local wind effects very close to shore. With a draft of 2.6m, we obviously don't want to run aground. Pierre-Yves Jorand commented: "We finished second just by one second, which was determined by the last little shift at the entrance mark. Swisscom had a good race, they put us under constant pressure all the way back to Geneva, and they managed to slip their bow just before the line. The race committee did a good job, watching and watching again the videos to finally declare them the winner by a few inches. The approach to these long races has changed over the last five or six years. Now, it is a race in which contact is permanent. Sailors do not take unnecessary risks and so the finishes are even tighter." Click here to watch the live rounding in Rolle with João's commentaries. To watch the finish and the comments of the crew straight after crossing the line, click here. Pour revoir l'arrivée serrée et les commentaires à bord et à chaud, juste après avoir coupé la ligne, click here. And for Pierre-Yves' analysis, click here. After two long days of competition (six races on Friday for the first day of the 3rd Grand Prix of the season and the "Genève-Rolle" this day), the team will rest for a night so that they might aim for a victory on the final day of the Realstone Grand Prix of Versoix tomorrow. Top 5 - Genève-Rolle-Genève : 1st - D35 Swisscom (5h41'13'') 2nd - D35 Alinghi (5h41'14'') 3rd - D35 Mobimo (5h46'26'') 4th - Ventilo M1 Safram (5h53'52'') 5th - D35 Ladycat Powered by Spindrift (6h01'06'') To find out more www.ycg.ch/geneve-rolle-geneve-2017 If you want to know more about how to follow the racing, about Alinghi’s team, or just about this regatta in general, you will find all that you need in this news story. Credit for photos © EP Medias & Alinghi