Vendée Globe: Sébastien Simon takes 3rd place on the podium in Les Sables-d'Olonne, around 3 days after the winner Charlie Dalin

Vendéen Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil) took 3rd place in the Vendée Globe on Friday 17 January 2025 in Les Sables-d'Olonne (Vendée), the famous solo round-the-world race, non-stop and without assistance, won on Tuesday by Norman Charlie Dalin.

Simon, 34, crossed the finish line at 1:27 (GMT+1), after 67 days 12 hours 25 minutes of racing, about three days after Dalin (Macif), and two after the Varois Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkea), thus completing the podium.

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The skipper of Groupe Dubreuil, orphaned from his starboard foil since the Indian Ocean, courageously held on to the leading duo until Point Nemo, before being left behind a little before Cape Horn.

The first Sables-d'Olonne native in history to finish on the podium of the race, he will however have to wait until tonight on his sailboat to make his way back up the channel, scheduled for 8am due to the tide. Despite everything, he was able to be joined after crossing the line by his technical team and his partner, before giving a long salute to the procession of boats that had come to welcome him in the bay by raising their arms.

In less than 70 days

His sponsor announced on Wednesday that he wanted to continue with the sailor until the next Vendée Globe to try to win, either by starting the construction of a new boat or by buying another sailboat.

Simon becomes the third sailor to complete a round the world race in less than 70 days in the Vendée Globe, after Richomme and Dalin, who had smashed the previous reference time for the event (Le Cléac'h, 74 days, 2016/2017 edition) arriving Tuesday in 64 days.

On his course, the Vendéen established the greatest distance ever covered in 24 hours aboard an Imoca: 615 nautical miles, or 1,139.6 km. Among the 31 sailors still to cross the finish line, the trio Jérémie Beyou (Charal)/Sam Goodchild (Vulnérable)/Paul Meilhat (Biotherm), battling for 4th, 5th and 6th places and who are within a few hours of each other, is expected at the end of next week.