Ambrogio Beccaria savours his first IMOCA victory as his crew take Leg 4 of The Ocean Race
by Ed Gorman / IMOCA Globe Series 3 Sep 2025 11:41 BST
2 September 2025
Allagrande Mapei Racing, skippered by Ambrogio Beccaria, winners of Leg 4 during The Ocean Race Europe © Lloyd Images / The Ocean Race Europe
After an action-packed Leg 4 from Nice to Genoa, Ambrogio Beccaria and his team on Allagrande MAPEI Racing savoured their first victory in The Ocean Race Europe.
The Italian skipper was thrilled not only to win as the fleet arrived in his home country, but to climb to the top of the podium after finishing third on Leg 3. It came in a dramatic race from Nice around Corsica, which saw Biotherm's perfect performance finally ended as Paul Meilhat and his crew on Biotherm finished third, behind second-placed Paprec Arkéa skippered by Yoann Richomme.
For Beccaria, this win comes after a steady improvement as the team recovered from a collision at the start of leg 1 and he had targeted this tricky Mediterranean sprint to finally reach the top of the podium.
"I said I would love to win this leg because I always want to dream of winning the next leg," said the 34-year-old Italian on the dockside at Genoa. "But this one was special because we are in Italy and we are improving so well as a team. In Leg 3 we were third, but we knew we could do better, so why not dream big and try to win this leg?"
The Allagrande MAPEI Racing crew which, alongside Beccaria, consists of French sailors Thomas Ruyant, Morgan Lagravière and Manon Peyre, certainly had to fight for this success. They were fourth going through the Strait of Bonifacio between Corsica and Sardinia, but then sailed an excellent downwind leg towards the turning mark off La Spezia where they arrived in first place. They achieved this despite having to repair their engine, as Beccaria revealed at the finish.
"We had a huge turning point in the big downwind...where at one moment we tried to charge our batteries and the engine wouldn't start," he said. "So we had to shut down the whole boat and steer with no instruments in the night and Morgan was able to make repairs and we were able to go on with the race."
In a leg that saw dramatic changes in speed, with the leading boats dipping in and out of breeze, as the course looped between La Spezia and a waypoint off the island of Gallinara in the centre of the Genoa low pressure system, Allagrande MAPEI Racing benefitted from being in the lead. With her bow into the breeze first south of Gallinara, she streaked away from her pursuers, leaving them creeping along at five knots while she hit speeds of up to 30 knots as the distances between them dramatically increased.
Looking back on that critical break, Beccaria said: "The last transition was the strangest because it let the boats trying to escape that no-wind zone go one-by-one. And there we managed to create a bit of distance from the others."
And he reflected on the journey he and his team have made since the collision off Kiel, with repairs to the rig having to be carried out and then trying to get back into the race. "It's been only three weeks," he said, "it seems like a long time ago. But I'm really happy because of all of the people that work on this project. It's wonderful...it's huge for us."
Reaching the finish 51 minutes after Beccaria, Yoann Richomme and his crew on Paprec Arkéa had done just enough to stay in second place overall, one point ahead of Holcim-PRB skippered on this leg by Nicolas Lunven of France. Richomme was delighted with second after what he called a "great fight" with the other three top boats. And he spoke about Allagrande MAPEI Racing's escape at the front.
"We had an amazing race. I think everyone was in the lead at one point and what did we miss?" said the Frenchman, who finished second in this year's Vendée Globe. "Not much. I mean he (Beccaria) took off in a little gust yesterday afternoon and then just kept pulling away and then there was this massive difference in wind."
For the Biotherm team, meanwhile, this was a new experience as they finished off the top step of the podium for the first time, coming in third just over three hours behind the winner. However they remain on course for overall victory with one leg and a coastal race to come, not least because they picked up two more points at the Bonus Scoring Gate on this leg, completing the full set from the start.
Meilhat, who sustained a cut on his arm during a fall while moving sails and stores inside the boat, was quite happy with a result that extends his overall lead by one point over Paprec Arkéa. "Actually it was a really hard, but interesting leg," he said. "It was a really good battle between four boats with Allagrande MAPEI Racing, Paprec Arkéa and Holcim-PRB. We played with the centre of the low pressure and, in a few metres, you had 20-25 knots of wind and just after, zero. So, at the end, there's a lot of time between the boats, but it was not representative of what we did during the race."
While Holcim-PRB ended up fourth on this leg, this has also been a disappointing stage for Team Malizia skippered by Boris Herrmann of Germany. They are on course for sixth place at Genoa, one place behind the team on Canada Ocean Racing-Be Water Positive led by Pip Hare of Great Britain, and one ahead of seventh-placed Team Amaala skippered by Alan Roura of Switzerland.