EURO TOUR Bord Ocean SUPDays Results

The results for the anticipated EURO TOUR Bord Ocean SUP Race are in and they came a bit as a surprise. The big favorite was Michael Booth and we are sure his fourth place came as much as a surprise as the first place came for Blue Ewer. Blue is having a good season so far, coming from Austria with a 1st and 3rd place and Gran Canaria 3rd. Second was the Brazilian Eri Tenorio he came from the Carolina Cup with a 4th place. Another new name on the podium was Ollie Houghton, the New Zealand champ made 3rd only 7 seconds behind Eri.

In fact the top 5 all came within one minute from each other, well Conner Baxter was 2 seconds short of that but we round that down. To see Connor Racing a longdistance race was actually kind of a novelty lately as we all know he likes to specialize in sprints, so his 5th place was not as much of a surprise as Boothys 4th.

Michael Booth commented the following in his instagram page:

What an interesting race in Bordeaux that ultimately incorporated more race strategy than pure paddling. I paddled well, had a good race but didn’t get the result I would’ve otherwise wanted, but that is racing sometimes.

I arrived in Bordeaux the day before the race and had a paddle session on the river to try and work out what was going on. Initially, I was on the 20.75 Starboard Sprint, but I was extremely surprised by how much current there was on the river. So, I quickly switched to a Starboard Allstar 20.5, and fortunately, @fiona_wylde allowed me to borrow her board as mine had not arrived yet. I tried to study the currents as much as I could in the short time I had, researching online and speaking to a few people about the course. It’s always difficult to understand rivers when you’re not familiar with the area, and it really adds a significant gambling element to the event. Ultimately, I decided that the closer side was the best strategy, and I would follow that in the race.

Despite the inside line of the course working well on the first lap, it did not work on the second. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, it probably wasn’t the fastest way in the first place, but with the whole men’s field taking that line, it was impossible to know. And secondly, it is really hard when leading to take a seemingly large risk to go against what was working on the first lap. I thought about going to the far side, but I stuck to my guns and went the inside again, which cost me 4 minutes in the time gap back to the second or third pack who decided to move to the outside. Smart by them, and I know if I was in their position, I would’ve taken the same gamble.

I pushed really hard to catch them in the final 2 kilometers, but I just didn’t have enough juice left in the dying stages to push again. Overall, I think it was a positive race for me as I couldn’t have done any more. I had a strategy based on the conditions, what I saw, and my gut feeling, and unfortunately for me, it didn’t work out. To provide perspective, I think no one who went on the inside on the second lap finished in the top ten (I haven’t seen the full results). This is just my version of events, and I’m sure there are lots of stories from this race!

What was really cool for me was competing in front of my young family for the first time. We are doing a little tour of Europe and running clinics and racing in between. It’s a great way to see the world.

The next race is in Sharbeutz, and it’s a sprint race. Let’s see how I do there. 

The current world number one Donato Freens finished on a disappointing 15th place, but he might get away not loosing his top spot as most of his contenders were not present in Bordeaux. Only Blue, but we don’t think he will get to points to jump in 1st. We will see mid week when we do the snap shot

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On the women side it was the Esperanza Barreras, Duna Gordillo and Iona Rivet show, these three ladies all arrived within 20 seconds at the finishline then followed by Fanny Tessier how made 4th but with over 4 minutes delay. In fact the entire ladies race was pretty much a French / Spanish affaire.

Results Longdistance