At 42, returning on a boat he admitted he had not been fully comfortable with, Lunven turned in a calculated performance throughout the three-stage, three week race.
Staying close to his nearest rivals and keeping calm under pressure meant he was there at the end when the man in front of him fell away. This is his third Solitaire title, which puts him in a small and exclusive club, and his victory ranks among the more remarkable returns this classic race has seen.
It must be said though that the fact that Lunven found himself in a position to win owed a lot to one of the cruellest endings the Solitaire has produced. Irishman Tom Dolan – who won the Solitaire back in 2024 – was leading the final leg and leading the race overall, sailing what he would later call the best Solitaire of his life, when he ran aground on a reef off the Île de Sein.
Dolan’s own account of the grounding is characteristically pragmatic: "The start [of Leg 3] was incredibly intense. We had to cross a huge zone of light wind, then a very active front with more than thirty knots upwind during the night. So for the first time since the beginning of the leg, I finally had a moment to breathe. I had changed, eaten my first proper meal in a while, taken two short naps. Then the third lasted only a few minutes. I fell asleep without realising it. When I woke up, I was aground."
