Believe it or not, the first racing boat that Chamonix-born Aurélien Ducroz spotted as a teenager was in... Port-Camargue. "My parents had a marina in Port-Camargue, remembers the 41-year-old from Chamonix. Et the first racing boat I saw, adolescent, it's Kito's! This will please the man who, at the time, was preparing for the Vendée Globe aboard "Groupe Bel". But it wasn't to revive memories of his teenage years that the man from Chamonix, twice world freeride ski champion, before becoming world Class40 champion, 'descended' to the South. After suffering damage during the single-handed CIC transatlantic race, the skipper of CrossCall bounced back by changing the programme he had planned for the other side of the Atlantic. Hence a sunnier-than-expected summer on the Grande Bleue. "We're going to make the most of it to discover other places, other courses and a new sea. We might even try to break some records. But it's not as a tourist that the man from Chamonix is pointing the spatula-shaped bow of his recent scow towards the start of the MED I MAX Occitanie - Saïdia Resorts. Especially as he has secured the services of Pep Costa as co-skipper, a young Spanish sailing prodigy, 25 years old, born in Barcelona and now based in Lorient, who is only waiting for one thing: to showcase his talents on the Mediterranean that saw him grow up. As for the race itself, he is expecting strong competition: "From a sporting point of view, it's going to be great, he continues. " Ot's going to be stiff competition, particularly from Mikael Mergui, whose Centrakor is the sistership of Crosscall. And then the course is great, inviting you to travel. That's what we're looking for in our sport. Even if we all know that sailing in the Mediterranean is complicated. You have to be patient. It will help me grow". Welcome, mountain man.