Racing results from last weekend (26th of May)

We’ve gone into the 4^th week of the EuroTour last weekend, and Crete was bound to be a special race for NSP, as one of the older athletes (Happy Birthday btw Alain!) who participated has stood at the very cradle of the NSP Racing program. Also congratulations on a well-deserved 41st place 😉

Agios Nikolaos is a coastal town on the Greek island of Crete, lying east of the island’s capital Heraklion, north of the town of Ierapetra and west of the town of Sitia. It’s easy to get to due to the International Airport and prize money remains a whopping 12.000 EUR, unchanged from last year’s event.

Noelani Sach attended as well after last week’s Vendée Gliss Event, and she continues to impress. Or, as supracer.com put it: “German youngster Noelani Sach was once again impressive in the bumps en route to her second straight EuroTour podium.”

NSP did great with a 2nd place for Titouan and 3rd for Noelani. Read the full results below; for a race report, make sure to check out Noelani’s take on her race:

“After seeing all the beautiful photos from Crete in advance I was really excited to head to this Greek island for the 4th stop of the EuroTour. Arriving late Friday evening we (me and my family) had the whole Saturday to check out the course, as well as getting registered at a nice beach a bit away from the main city of this area, called Agios Nikolaos.”

“This part of the tour is really warm, windy and sunny plus the Greek food is renowned worldwide. After everything was done I went for a little pre-race training session. The EuroTour provides the great service of transporting the boards to the different event sites which makes life heaps easier.

On Sunday, after a short but heavy rain shower the clouds slowly disappeared and with the sun coming out the wind also picked up. We started upwind at Plaka beach, which actually was a pretty rocky beach. Therefore, the organizers decided to do a waterstart and head straight downwind. The wind consistently increased during the warm-up and skippersmeeting and by the time we were done, boards started to fly around.”

“The location looked pretty cool with the wind accelerating between Spinalonga (an island offshore) and the mainland. The start was pretty hectic and messy as usual with women and men starting at the same time. And once moreI managed to win the girls start and took off heading downwind. Like Titouan, I chose the left lane which worked pretty well for me as I was always trading 1^st or 2^nd place with Amandine Chazot and Olivia Piana – who chose to go further to the right. After 4.5k we had to pass a tiny channel with a little bridge, requiring me to surf sideways to get there, as I had chosen a different lane.”

“I ended up coming out of the channel in 3^rd place, just behind Olivia, almost close enough to draft her. Coming out to the open Mediterranean, we initially were still sheltered from the wind and waves. This is where both the top 2 girls managed to break away a bit. Soon the swell and wind reached us and the race turned into surfing. Continuing the course we had to go around a cliff following the coast line. Despite the wind now coming sideways we were able to catch some amazing bumps as I was battling with EuroTour organizer Belar Diaz. Further down we had a short flat part, where we turned around the buoy downwind again and continued towards Agios Nikolaos harbor.”

“I still had some good battles with the guys and although I could see Olivia the whole time I wasn’t able to catch up and stayed in 3rd position in front of Susak Molinero. The finish line was in the harbor just in front of a small bridge leading into a so called “Sea Lake”. Everything was prepared for our arrival and water and food were provided immediately. The weather was amazing as it was a hot day and watching some more amateur racing before the prize ceremony was awesome. The organization had handpicked a typical Greek plaza and the locals were really warm and hospitable. In the end, Titouan scored some podium surface as well with a solid 2nd position.”

“Cheers to Belar for putting this great EuroTour together making it possible for us to race in many different locations all over Europe.”

Full results men

Full results women

All pictures by Sandra Sach