The Yellow Group race may have been under 20 minutes; the Blue Group just over 22 but it was full noise for everyone on day two in France.

For the un-initiated may I offer a translation… The wind conditions were such that if you pumped at full force, the board staid on the plane. Forget about hooking in and lying back in your harness. This was balls to the wall action from gun to gun!

These racers are real athletes are amongst the fitness of athletes across all sports in the Olympic Games. The marginal conditions in Brest on Monday provided a really test of their capabilities.

So who can hack it these conditions? The young guys obviously, you would say and you would only be half right because the winner in the blue group was none other than a 39 year old called Nikos KAKLAMANAKIS (GRE). True grit…

Behind him, Przemyslaw MIARCZYNSKI (POL) an erstwhile strong-wind performer who has now learnt to work it in the lighter stuff. And 'Mr. Consistency', Julien BONTEMPS (FRA). He finished third to retain his overall lead by one point.

Over in the yellow group, Casper BOUMAN (NED) sprung to life and to win the race just 30 seconds in front of João RODRIGUES (POR), now fourth overall and Dorian VAN RIJSSELBERGE (NED), now tenth.

On Tuesday, the men need one further race in all fleets for the exclude to kick in which should bring Nick DEMPSEY (GBR) back from the living dead where he currently resides having broken his centreboard in race 4 forcing him to DNF. However he was philosophical about it when I spoke to him this evening. The board in question is well out of its warranty period.

Amongst the women it is case of elation rapidly followed by deflation for world #1 Marina ALABAU (ESP), who won race 4 but was subsequently disqualified for being over the line early under a black flag, pushing her down the overall ranking to tenth.

Faustine MERRET (FRA) retains her position at the top of the leaderboard after day two and a total of four races completed. Her training partner Charline PICON (FRA) is just three points away in second. These two are creating a nice cushion leading with third place Zofia KLEPACKA (POL) seven points adrift.

Results - click here