Sailing: Greenhalgh must graft to match Stead success

The Silver Jubilee edition of the Tour de France à la voile starts the first leg of its 2000-mile pilgrimage from Dunkirk to Nice as the 40 yachts leave today for the run to Dieppe.

Britain has representatives in all three divisions, professional, amateur and student, but the man seeking to take over the mantle of the all-conquering Adrian Stead in 2000, Rob Greenhalgh, has his work cut out in Panther-GBR.

The month-long event, with 10 passage races offshore and 24 round-the-buoys races inshore, is staged in Mumm 30s and home-produced, seasoned campaigners like Marc Thiercelin, Jimmy Pahun – with Isabelle Autissier as navigator – and Alain Fedensieu do not want the silverware exported again.

Greenhalgh has a squad which includes the Olympic silver medallist Ian Barker, the top dinghy man Mark Rushall, the navigator Mike Broughton and Duncan McDonald, brother of Neal and one of the crew which helped Tony Buckingham grab third place in Easy Oars in 2000.

The amateurs, sailing for the Royal Thames Yacht Club, are backed by Peter Whipp and Richard Bonham-Christie and skippered by Owen Modral

The student pennant which was carried to first in class by Peter Bonham-Christie and others last year is taken up by an Anglo-Australian combination of Scott Walters and Simon Sutherland, sailing for a Parisian-based business school, EDC. Both Modral and the students were lying second overall, after a pair of breezy inshore races yesterday.