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Palmalife RSX Youth Windsurfing World Championships Yalikavak Turkey

Event Overview.

Scheduled to start just one week afrter the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships finished in Buzios Brazil, the pinncale open entry youth windsurfing world championships staged by the RS:X Class with the support of Palmalife, the Yalikavak local governement,the Turkish Sailing Federation and Turkish Airlines was the biggest yet.109 competitors including 78 Youth Men (27#U17) and 26 Youth Women (5#U17) from 14 countries and 3 continents enjoyed champagne racing over 6 days.

The TYF put in place a fantastic organisation to manage the event with logistics being handleed by Meet Travel. Yalikavak built a mini-'Arc De Triomphe'in the ventre of town in honour of hosting the championships and Palmalife were a discreet but valued presence as the title sponsor without whom the major success of this championship would have foundered on the rocks of financial woes.

The event was covered by a 4 man video production team and two stills photographers. 28 videos were loaded onto more than 10 video hosting sites. More than 1000 images wer loaded onto Flikr and received more than 15000 views.The event website received more than 9000 visits and 40,000 page views. 5 races were run in under 10 knots of breeze, a further 5 in under 15 knots and the remaining 3 in 15 knots +. These are dry statistics but they help to tell the story of the championships.

Youth Men.

Race Day 1 and a big group took the wrong turn at mark 1 to sail the inner loop rather than the outer. It was all over for Joseph Guegan (FRA9), the newly crowned ISAF Youth World Champion. He sailed a consistent regatta from then on in but there was no way back to the podium for him.

Big Friday.The day that it blew up to 23 knots changed the face of the leader board. Michalis Malekkides (CYP9) who had been well back in the peleton until sprang into life posting a consistent 1,3,2 to put himself in with a chance of a podium finish. Meanwhilew the lightweights sank to the low 'teens and in doing so damaged their campaigns beyond repair.

Medal Race. The RC took their time to settle the course and make ready. Then they were off on a 0.38 mile beat. Michalis took 23 minutes to sail a perfect race and claim the top step on the podium. Thomas Goyard (FRA356) took 2nd and Manfredi Misuraca (ITA1) 3rd and the bronze medal. Manfredi is just 16 years old but banged in consistent results whatever the wind speeds. Italian windsurfing has a future champion in the making here with out doubt. However the story of the medal race was one of disappointment for Antonio Christofis (GRE23) and Leonidas Qikononidis (GRE11) who both missed out a buoy in the slalom section and were black flagged for their trouble.

Youth Women

Over in the Youth Women's fleet, everyone was trying to find an answer to the dominant performances of Sybille and Leonore Bosch (FRA11 & 10 respectively) They were both super consistent in the light to medium air but were found wanting when it blew. Izzy Hamilton was the one to spring to life this time. She does not go well in anything under 10 knots and there were just 3 such races. But when the wind speeds climb into double figures she is hard to beat. She took gold in the medal race and was so far in front one could be foregiven for thinking that the race was over before it began. She took 13 minutes to sail the course.Behind her the slalom section took on the appearance of a demolition derby as oner after another the womjen blew their jibes under the pressure. Leonore Bosch (FRA10) sailed through the fleet to claim the silver medaln performing each jibe with grace and ease. It was Helene Noesmoen (FRA 57) who was uncolable. She had blown a podium position by falling within sight of the finish.

Wrap Up

The French Team only took one medal but if you are looking for consistency they occupied 2nd, 5th and 6th in the Youth Women's Fleet and 5th and 7th in the men's. Not bad when you consider that RS:X Youth Racing in France is the preserve of only 30 elite sailors. Nest year we are off to the St Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco to sail on their famous Indy Car oval, launching off Chrissy Fields within sight of the iconic Golden Gate bridge. No doubt everyone will have done some serious training in the breeze before boarding their planes. San Francisco is not a place for the light wind specialists.
About the Author

Rory Ramsden has been staging and managing elite windsurf racing championships round the world for the blast 25 years. For the last 17 of those years he has managed the Olympic windsurfing class through 3 Olympic quadrennials and now a fourth. Windsurfing has been a passion since he organised a Mistral European Windsurfing Championships in 1983.
He now manages the International RS:X Class association whose website is at http://www.rsxclass.com His photostream for the Palmalife RS:X Youth Windsurfing World Championshyips is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/14887359@N06/

what are people called in a team in the peleton in the tour de france?

Unless you are the team leader, you are a domestique, a worker for the team leader. Each team consists of 9 riders.

Astana team leading peleton up Col du Tourmalet