Tom Laperche wins the Route du Rhum 2026 and takes the event record

He got loose and was never caught. Tom Laperche crossed the finish line of the Route du Rhum first, at 3:34 a.m. Paris time, Sunday November 8, in Guadeloupe. The skipper of SVR-Lazartigue, one of the best prepared boats in the fleet, avoided all the pitfalls to do even better than Charles Caudrelier in 2022.

Arriving after six days, 13 hours and 27 minutes of racing, Tom Laperche reduced his predecessor's record by around six hours. The youngest in the Ultim class (29 years old) is taking on the most prestigious race of his career, having already won the Solitaire du Figaro in 2022 and the Transat Café L'Or in 2025.

"Tom got to the heart of the matter with a lot of intensity to show that the boat was going well and that it was maneuvering well. North of the Azores, a gap was created with the rest of the fleet, with the breakage of certain boats. a complicated obstacle to overcome", recalled Franck Cammas, performance director of SVR-Lazartigue.

At 29, Tom Laperche becomes the youngest winner of the Ultim class on the solo transatlantic. Thomas Coville (Sodebo) and Louis Burton (Armand Thierry) are expected in the coming hours to join him on the podium. After the maxi-trimarans, the other classes of boats should arrive in Pointe-à-Pitre in clusters from Tuesday.