Loick Peyron powers past Madeira and into lead

8:26 PM Thu 13 Nov 2008 GMT

'Gitana Eighty, skippered by Lo?ck Peyron of France' Copyright: Gitana S.A. /Yvan Zedda Click Here to view large photo

While Alex Thomson was announcing his retirement from the Vendee Globe in Les Sables, the pace at the front of the fleet is incessant. The leading five are passing Madeira with Lo?ck Peyron hanging on to a lead of 13.6 miles, making nearly 16 knots of boat speed, ahead of Seb Josse (BT) who has taken back second and who lead last night.

Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) lies third as all three pass to the west of Madeira, while the maverick Jean le Cam (VM Materiaux) continues his run down the eastern-most flank and has chosen to go inside the main island of Madeira and risk the wind-shadow effect of the mountains which reach nearly 2000m.

The chasing pack have picked up the pace too, well into trade winds type sailing although some mentioned the lack of sunshine so far on today. Several of the leading skippers today remarked at having so little time to rest and recuperate, so intense is the need to keep up the ferocious work rate.

Of the international skippers Mike Golding on Ecover three retains 11th spot on the rankings, but has Brian Thompson becoming a threat with the Juan K designed powerful Bahrain Team Pindar. Thompson has made up to be just 13 miles behind and slightly east of Golding, though Golding on his Owen Clarke design is consistently quicker than his former co-skipper on this afternoon's register.

Alex Thomson, the British solo skipper, confirmed his official retirement from the Vendee Globe, unable to make repairs to his Open 60 Hugo Boss before the start line closes next Wednesday.

Derek Hatfield gave details of his plans to leave Les Sables d'Olonne again to re-start the Vendee Globe early Friday morning. He will have a deficit of around 1,200 miles on the leading boat, but perhaps around 170-220 miles on Bernard Stamm, the Swiss skipper who restarted about 24 hours earlier than the former RCMP policeman.

'I am a very competitive person, but it takes a little bit of soul searching and re-motivating to get back into it. The motivation is getting round the world safely and see how we fare' said Hatfield.

Vendee Globe, Day 4, at the latitude of Madeira - Standings at 15:00GMT

1 - Loick Peyron (Gitana Eighty) 22,570 miles to finish
2 - Seb Josse (BT) + at 13.6 miles
3 - Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) at + 18.2 miles
4 - Jean Le Cam (VM Materiaux) at + 24.1 miles
5 - Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) at + 52.9 miles

Selected international:

11 - Mike Golding, GBR, (ECOVER 3) + 106.9 miles
12 - Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar) +119.6
13 - Dee Caffari, GBR, (AVIVA) + 132.5 miles
15 - Sam Davies, GBR,(ROXY) + 161.9 miles
16 - Dominique Wavre, SUI, (Temenos 2) + 221 miles
17 - Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) + 226.7 miles
19 - Johnny Malbon, GBR, (Artemis) + 290.5miles
20 - Unai Basurko, ESP, (Pakea Bizkaia) + 326.6 miles
21 - Rich Wilson, USA, (Great America III) + 341.2 miles

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Loick Peyron powers past Madeira and into lead

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