Volvo Ocean Race - Gruelling, cruel but glorious – the end to ourround-the-race tour

Race route expert Gonzalo Infante completes his guide to the 2014-15 course with this breeze across the Atlantic and around Europe to the finish in Gothenburg. Watch out, because the last miles could easily be the hardest as tiredness and terrible conditions combine.

Newport – Lisbon: 2,800 nm
Gonzalo Infante:
The transatlantic leg is a highly symbolic one. The sailing can be rough and emotions are high as the fleet goes back to Europe, home of the race.

It's a spring crossing, the fastest feasible time to sail across the Atlantic. The winter in the North Atlantic is a bit of a drama. Spring is more feasible but you have got to be careful when trying to find a good way below the northern storm track.

So you're in for a bit of rough weather sailing, riding low pressures to go fast. At some point you have to dive south to head towards Portugal. That's another tricky connection to the Portuguese trades. They take you all the way to the Portuguese coast before a gorgeous leg finish in the Tagus River.

Lisbon – Lorient: 647 nm
Gonzalo Infante:

The first European leg takes you through the Bay of Biscay, which is always a sailing milestone. In the last edition, the boats went through one of their worst storms just before arriving in France so do not underestimate these 647 nautical miles.

In 2015 the fleet will go straight and not around the Azores as we did in 2011-12. Is it going to be a very fast one then? Not for the first miles, as they will have to beat upwind.

The Spanish coast can steer things a bit with some thermal effects on the northwesterly winds.

Then the Bay of Biscay is always interesting. It can be very windy if a good storm is coming from the North Atlantic; it can be very light if a low pressure just went across the Bay.

Lorient – Gothenburg: 1,600 nm
Gonzalo Infante:

This might well be my favourite leg... Though it could also be the hardest one of the whole race! It's so short it will be high intensity. There will be a lot of coastal sailing, navigational hazards, strong currents and potential rough weather. Don't forget the crews will be really tired after eight months of sailing too. Definitely a fascinating one!

First you have got to round the British Isles. Summer time or not, the weather is likely to be bad and the sea state nasty. There is no escape: you cannot get away from the coast or you will sail too many miles.

There are very strong currents around the Shetland Islands and it may very well be an awful passage.

The North Sea is full of oil rigs and wind farms. Again the weather can be very, very rough or very, very light.

Then comes the Gulf of Finland and the approach to Gothenburg, on the western coast of Sweden, for the grand finale of the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15.