Oman Airports by Oman Sail saved their best to last with a strong showing in Nice to finish in fifth place in the 2016 Tour de France a la Voile, reaching the goals they set for their debut entry in the round France classic.
The final weekend, which brought the curtain down on a drama filled three-week challenge, saw the Omani team led by British Olympic sailor Stevie Morrison take a fifth place in the last stadium racing event but it was the previous day, when they achieved their first ever podium place in the Nice coastal race, coming third, that presented them with their Tour highlight.
“It was a fantastic end to a long event and we achieved our target of fifth place which was great,” Morrison said at the end of their exhausting campaign.
At the start of the Tour in Dunkirk on July 8, Morrison and co skipper Thierry Douillard set their sights on a top 5 place after racing against other Diam 24 teams in a series of warm up events in northern France.
A great opportunity for the two Omanis Ali Al Balushi, on his fifth Tour and Abdulrahman Al Mashari to learn from professionals became even more of a challenge when Douillard was injured just four days into their campaign leaving the remaining crew with increased responsibilities. According to Morrison, this proved invaluable for fast tracking their learning.
“Ali and Abdul have grown hugely over the past three weeks – they have enjoyed it and found it challenging but as sailors, their standards are now very high and they are a match for any of us – trimming the sails and pointing things out in setting up the boat and boat handling were all very impressive.
“They showed some real character under pressure in the final weekend which helped us get our podium place.
“Losing Thierry from the crew in the first few days affected us and if we’d had him with us throughout, we could probably have come fourth,” added Morrison.
Douillard was also impressed with the team’s performance in the closing stages and was happy to return to the squad in the last few days to lend his support even though he was still unable to race.
“The guys never gave up and worked really hard, finding solutions to whatever was thrown at them. We had good starts, good speed and the communications got better the more time they spent together. They were really involved in all aspects of racing the boat and they learned a lot.
“They worked hard off the water too – for example, we set off from Hyeres after racing on Thursday night and arrived in Nice at midnight and finished rigging the boat at 2am then at 9am they were on the water ready to race. They worked hard and had a great spirit so it was very good to see.
“We knew at the start that finishing 5th would be hard so considering everything that happened, top 5 was really good. Next year, we will be targeting a podium place!”
For Al Balushi, his fifth Tour turned out to be his best yet, he said.
“The learning curve was very steep and it was hard work but we learned so much and really enjoyed the Diam 24 so we are very happy to finish in fifth and very proud to have represented our country at the front of such a tough fleet,” he said.
“We are confident that next time, we can do much better but for now, we are looking forward to getting back to our families in Oman because we have been away for a long time!”
