INSIGHT ISSUE 02 | 2021

16 Enabling the Digital and Energy transition WHEN REACHING A GOAL IS A STARTING POINT TO DO EVEN BETTER Prysmian Group and Italian skipper Giancarlo Pedote have been around the world together in 80 days. Or more precisely 80 days, 22 hours, 42 minutes and 20 seconds. That’s how long it took Giancarlo to complete the Vendée Globe non-stop solo yacht race at the helm of the Prysmian Group IMOCA 60. experience of the Vandée Globe is a project that has been successfully completed, with results that were absolutely beyond the expectations that we set out with. At this point it becomes a starting point to do better, to go further. This is part of my nature as a sportsman, as a competitor. Simply to always launch myself towards a new goal, a different goal. The Vendée Globe attracts so many people because it is a very long race, a solo race, an extreme race, where you sail at latitudes that are inaccessible in normal conditions, where no one goes except for racing. So it gives people who watch it and who identify with the competitors a sense of adventure, of freedom, of putting yourself to the test. It is the longest sporting competition in the world, there is no other non-stop event that lasts almost 3 months. So it’s unique. And the fact that we can use our satellite systems T he Vendée Globe race is one of the world’s most demanding sporting events, and Pedote after one year and a half of preparation finally got to meet his challenge on November 8 2020, when he was one of 33 skippers that set out from Les Sables d’Olonne on France’s Western coast. On January 28 he was the seventh skipper to cross the finish line, and finished in eighth place after one of the competitors was given a 10-hour bonus for having rescued a fellow competitor. Pedote was the fifth Italian to compete in the Vendée Globe, and had the best performance of any Italian. Nearly five months after the end of the Vendée Globe, I feel positive about it, like I have succeeded in a huge goal that I pursued for several years. Clearly, I am not the sort of person who by nature stops to contemplate a success as if it were a painting hanging on a wall. So already about two weeks after the end of the race, I completely turned my gaze towards the future, in order to build on these results. So basically, the It’s been nearly five months since you came across the finish line at the end of the Vendée Globe. How do you feel about it? Why do you think the Vendée Globe attracts so many people compared to many other regattas? Giancarlo Pedote Italian skipper