Wanted, sweated, sought, fought until the end. The first leg of the Mini Transat belongs to Ambrogio Beccaria on Geomag, who finishes first among the Series with a time of 8 days 19 hours 52 minutes 7 seconds, averaging 6.32 knots. The turning point came in the last 24 hours, when Ambrose moved back into the lead of the race, overtaking Felix De Navacelle, thanks to a more westerly positioning that made him hook into the new wind early. The time advantage over the rival will be about 2 hours, nothing decisive ahead of the second stage (the sum of times applies), but important for morale.
“I am so happy! I didn’t think I was in the lead. Yesterday morning I did not listen to the weather and the rankings because I was sure I had lost all my leadership in the night. I thought everyone was positioned to the west, and with the wind coming from the southwest, I thought I had lost everything. Especially since I learned that Felix was close. As a result, I abstained from sleeping and eating for at least 15 hours to try to navigate as fast as possible, and I have no regrets. I doubted it completely. I told myself that it was no big deal, that if I came third it was already good. I started to have a doubt when I heard the Proto talking with the VHF, I thought it was strange. Eventually I found that all were positioned in the east. I won this first stage and it’s really cool“, these were Ambrose’s first statements after the finish line.
Mauro Giuffrè
