The leg from Cartagena to Nice has already shown the full character of the Med: punishing heat, teasing calms, and now, at last, a freshening breeze carrying the seven-strong IMOCA fleet north-west toward the French coast. By midday Thursday, speeds had climbed as the leading boats found themselves in reaching mode, bows pointed toward a waypoint off the Îles d’Hyères. Neck-and-neck through the night If Biotherm hold the advantage now, it is only by the finest of margins after a knife-edge duel against Rosalin Kuiper’s Holcim-PRB along Mallorca’s spectacular coastline.