Cammas concurs. He says the offer was "hard to refuse."
"I'm being offered the chance to join a renowned team that has the human, technical, and skill resources to win the race; it's a great opportunity," he enthuses.
"Tom is a hard worker, he likes to understand things, he's rigorous, and very deserving," assures Franck Camma. "If people say I resemebled him at his age, that's very flattering for me!"
"There are definitely parallels between what I'm experiencing and what he experienced," adds Tom. "Being the skipper of a big boat within such a prestigious team is reminiscent of what he was like twenty years ago in Orma."
"Not the favorites on paper, but..."
This season, the duo and the entire SVR-Lazartigue team have been working hard to gain momentum. And it's working. "We've sailed quite a bit and we're pretty confident with the boat," smiles Tom Laperche. This summer, they won the prestigious Rolex Fastnet Race as a crew after 1 day and 17 hours of racing, covering 695 miles. And in September, the duo also won the 24H Ultimes after "going all out the whole time," says Tom.
"In ocean racing, you know you can always improve on many details," confides Tom. "After victory, it's not just a sum of skills, it's the ability to put all the pieces together to achieve it."
Now, two years one from Laperche and François Gabart's second place behind the Le Cléac'h-Josse duo, what if this is the year?
"The fleet's level has tightened up again, and Banque Populaire has also improved over the past two years," Cammas, who has already won four times, in 2001, 2003, 2007 and 2021, says "I don't think we're the favorites on paper, but the team has improved a lot."
He concludes: "It's difficult to make a prediction, but for me the real challenge is to win!"
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