The fourth leg of The Ocean Race Europe 2025 got under way in typically Mediterranean fashion. Under clear skies off Nice, the IMOCA fleet launched into an eight-knot breeze at 1700 local time, Code Zeros unfurling as the boats powered away from the line. Holcim-PRB, skippered by France's Nico Lunven, nailed the sharpest start, with Paul Meilhat's Biotherm also bursting clear in the early running.
Eight miles into the 550-nautical mile run to Genova, Biotherm claimed the first meaningful prize of the leg, edging Holcim-PRB at the Monaco scoring gate to pocket early points. Then the Mediterranean showed its other face. As darkness arrived, the breeze dissolved into scattered patches of near calm along the French and Corsican coasts, and what had begun as a glamorous departure became a taxing tactical puzzle.
Paprec Arkéa briefly grabbed the lead by maintaining momentum while others stalled, but the frontrunning group of Biotherm, Holcim-PRB, Paprec Arkéa, and Italy's Allagrande Mapei stayed compressed within a handful of miles. Further back, Team Malizia, Be Water Positive, and Team Amaala trailed by roughly 20 miles, still close enough that a change in conditions could have brought them back into contention.
The Strait of Bonifacio provided the first major test of nerves and skill. The notorious channel between Corsica and Sardinia funnelled the wind from a whisper of five knots up to near-30-knot bursts, forcing crews to swap massive Code Zeros for smaller J3s while tacking and gybing under pressure through the strait. Holcim-PRB initially benefited from a bold call to tuck under the Corsican coast, stretching clear of the pack. The advantage was short-lived. By the time the fleet emerged from Bonifacio and began tracking north towards Italy, the positions had reshuffled, and the same leading four had broken away from the trailing trio. With constant manoeuvring and little chance of sleep, fatigue was already settling over the frontrunners.
The Elba passage brought fresh complications and a decisive shift in fortune. Biotherm chose the eastern route around the island, while Holcim-PRB gybed away to the west. Allagrande Mapei, however, was already positioned to the west and held their line, neatly avoiding the extra manoeuvre that cost their rivals time. Ambrogio Beccaria's team also had to manage a power failure during this period, sailing without instruments for an hour before the system came back online. Despite that setback, they came through the passage in front.
By Livorno, Allagrande Mapei had taken the lead outright. For Beccaria, racing toward home waters, the moment carried obvious emotional weight. The pace up the Italian coast was fierce, with the foiling IMOCAs pushing past 20 knots, and at dawn the top four were still separated by fewer than three miles. Sleep deprivation among the crews was total, yet the racing demanded absolute concentration.
The Gulf of Genoa proved to be the most unpredictable arena of all. Thunderstorms, shifting cloud, and fickle puffs made routing a guessing game. One onboard reporter described the conditions as "like a fairground in a washing bowl." Holcim-PRB probed a southern move towards Alassio in an attempt to find an escape route, but Allagrande Mapei countered effectively and reasserted control. Every cloud line and pressure shift carried the potential to reorder the fleet in an instant. Biotherm's Benjamin Ferré captured the mood with disarming honesty: "Nobody knows what's going to happen. We study the Meteo, but in the end it is totally different. You just have to adapt."
As the final night settled over the gulf, forecast models gave contradictory signals, with projected arrival times swinging between 02:30 and 04:00 local time. The suspense held until the very end.
At 23:41:14 UTC, Allagrande Mapei crossed the finish line in Genova, completing the leg in 2 days, 8 hours, 41 minutes, and 14 seconds. Italian supporters who had stayed up into the early hours were rewarded with the home victory they had hoped for. Beccaria's crew included Thomas Ruyant, a seasoned Vendée Globe racer, alongside Morgan Lagravière and the emerging talent Manon Peyre.
Paprec Arkéa arrived next to claim second place at 00:32:05 UTC, with Biotherm completing the podium at 02:49:57 UTC. It was the first occasion in this edition that Biotherm had failed to take maximum points at a gate or finish. In the points tally, Allagrande Mapei banked 7 points, Paprec Arkéa 6, and Biotherm 7 in total, made up of 5 for third place and 2 collected at the Monaco scoring gate. Holcim-PRB, finishing just outside the podium, added valuable points to their overall standings tally.
The leg from Nice to Genova delivered everything The Ocean Race Europe promises: glamour alongside grinding uncertainty, with fortune swinging on a cloud shadow and the very best of offshore racing compressed into two days on one of the world's most storied stretches of water. For Beccaria, it was a homecoming turned triumph, and for the Italian crowd welcoming him in the early hours, the result could hardly have been scripted better.
