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De Radigues out of Around Alone

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Torbay, England (CNN) -- Belgian Patrick de Radigues has dropped out of the Around Alone race after just one leg.

The fleet was preparing to start the 6,880-mile second leg from Torbay, on the southwest coast of England, to Cape Town without him on Monday. The scheduled start on Sunday was postponed because of bad weather.

De Radigues was third on the first leg from New York to Torbay, but his sponsor, Garnier, has decided that the shorter Route du Rhum race from St Malo to the Caribbean starting on November 10 is more in line with its corporate objectives than a long race around the world, and has pulled his entry.

While the Around Alone race has just six Open 60 yachts, the Route du Rhum has attracted a fleet of 17 Open 60 monohulls, including Roland Jourdain on Sill and Ellen MacArthur making her last outing on Kingfisher.

There are plenty of challenges for the remaining Around Alone yachts on the second leg which takes the fleet past the Bay of Biscay, through the light airs of the Doldrums, across the Equator and down into the South Atlantic.

Swiss Class I winner Bernard Stamm showed good speed in the Open 60 Bobst Group Amor Lux on the first leg, resisting a late challenge from Frenchman Thierry Dubois in Solidaires.

The only British skipper and the sole woman in the race, Emma Richards, is hoping to continue improving after overtaking three boats before the end of the first leg and posting the fastest solo monohull time ever for a female sailor west to east across the Atlantic.

American competitor Bruce Schwab has fitted a new boom to his Open 60 Ocean Planet and is hoping to get back into the race after limping home in sixth place on the first leg.

In Class II, American Brad van Liew in the Open 50 Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America has a big lead having finished nearly three days ahead of Canadian Derek Hatfield sailing the Open 40 Spirit of Canada on the first leg.

The 28,775-mile five-leg single-handed Around Alone race is held every four years.

There are two classes of monohulls from 12 to 18m (40 to 60ft). The race has stopovers in Torbay, Cape Town, South Africa, Tauranga, New Zealand and Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, before returning to Newport, Rhode Island in April 2003.

Class 1 Open 60 leg one results: New York to Torbay

1 Bobst Group-Armor Lux Bernard Stamm (Switzerland) 10 days 22 hrs 18 m

2 Solidaires Thierry Dubois (France) 11 days 9 hrs 02m

3 Garnier Patrick de Radigues (Belgium) 13 days 13hrs 38m

4 Pindar Emma Richards (UK) 13 days 13hrs 51m

5 Tiscali Simone Bianchetti (Italy) 13 days 17hrs 53m

6 Ocean Planet Bruce Schwab (USA) 16 days 1hr 34m

7 Hexagon Graham Dalton (New Zealand) 16 days 8hrs 49m

Class II Open 50 & Open 40 leg one results: New York to Torbay

1 Tommy Hilfiger/Freedom America 50ft Brad Van Liew (USA) 14 days 16hrs 27m

2 Spirit of Canada Derek Hatfield 40ft (Canada) 17 days 8hrs 25m

3 Everest Horizontal 50ft Tim Kent (USA) 17 days 12hrs 40m