Alexia Barrier has become the first woman to complete a solo transatlantic race in the Ultim class, crossing the Route du Rhum finish line to a crowd roaring her name along the barriers.
She had cried twenty minutes before the line, then punched the air at the bow of her boat as the achievement sank in. The smile said everything. She already wants to do it again.
"Twenty minutes before the line, I was crying like a baby and realising what I'd done," Barrier said. "Being the first woman in history on this type of boat is just mad. This was a really special Route du Rhum. I was in pain, it was hard, I hung on and I loved every day of this race. Solo sailing and crewed sailing are really not the same thing. I wasn't prepared for living at such an intense pace."
The pace itself was relentless, she said, with one weather system following another and barely a let-up, even when the wind dropped away near the end.
"When there's no wind, you can't sleep either. You still have to keep the boat moving. And on my boat, I'm exposed to the elements the whole time. At the start of the race I got quite cold, I was sleeping on the floor, on a cushion, I couldn't warm up, I had to crawl to grab a line. It was a bit survivor mode. That's what was hard."
She suffered just one piece of damage during the race, tearing her mainsail three days from the finish.
"It happened to us on the Tour du Monde too, so I knew I could finish the race, worst case without a mainsail. But I really didn't want it to end that way, especially with no wind to finish the race. It stressed me out a bit, then I told myself I knew what to do. So I got rid of the knot in my stomach and replaced it with a disco ball instead."
Finishing well behind the rest of the Ultim fleet hasn't dented her pride, or her appetite for more.
"I'm a bit surprised to finish so far behind the other Ultims, and at the same time I'm so proud to have finished the race and so happy to already have a clear list of things to work on. I'm hungry to go back out there and really express myself. This was a first, a trial run. A bit like the first pancake, it's not always perfect. But the next one will be magnificent."
Barrier is already looking ahead to the Arkéa Ultim Challenge Brest.
"The next one for me will be solo, around the world, in 2028. Next year we'll properly prepare the boat for that. No more nights in the little exposed nook outside, we'll put in some protection. We'll also race within the Ultim class to really take the measure of the competition, to test ourselves against the others. Even with an old boat, there's no reason not to take your shot."
She was quick to credit her shore team for the result.
"I'm proud of myself, and I'm 400 percent proud of my team. Once again, without this collective, nothing is possible. We didn't win the trophy, but we won an XXL challenge. That's the magic of the Route du Rhum. It's a solo race, but above all it's a team effort to get across the Atlantic."
Barrier's finish capped an edition already rich with firsts and late drama. She reached Pointe-à-Pitre as the Ultim fleet completed its arrivals, with duels still raging further back in the pack. Days earlier, Anne-Claire Le Berre made her own breakthrough, becoming the first woman to start and finish a solo transatlantic race in the Ocean Fifty class, a milestone that, alongside Barrier's, will stand out from this year's Route du Rhum long after the podium results are forgotten.
