On this Thursday, no one had to tremble or hope for luck: The German teams of the Children and the Pony Riders qualified for the final on Sunday with complete confidence.
In the Children’s class, starter Lennard Tillmann had a bit of bad luck with Oreal des Etains Z (v. Orlando) and finished the course with four faults. But that didn’t matter at all, because Vieca Sofie Bade on Chades Of Grey (v. Contendro I), Jolie Marie Kühner on Lionel Messi (v. Leo Von Faelz) and Tony Stormann on Dia Nova (v. Diamant de Revel) all finished the 1.30m course with zero rounds. This ended the competition for the Zangersheide Prize for Team Germany with a white vest and first place – shared with the also error-free teams from Sweden, the Netherlands and Belgium.
The day also ended in a shared first place for the pony riders from Germany: Here too, the starting rider, Antonia Häsler on Clarissa NRW (v. Coronas), had trouble with her mount, finishing with four points, but both Franca Clementine Kröly on Karim Van Orchid S (v. Kanshebber) and Jolie Marie Kühner, this time on Del Piero II (v. Dexter Lam Pondi), kept their white vests on. In the meantime, two poles fell for Leonie Pander and Indimill A (v. Peppermill), but that was the final result after deducting the pole count. Only Team Ireland managed to finish the day with four points, adding two time penalty points to the four points tally. Third place was taken by the British team, who also managed to finish the day with four points after deducting the pole count.
Speaking of two time errors: With this result, Marie Flick, in the junior Grand Prix, came in without contact with the poles in Ciro (v. Conlander) and finished as the best German and was still placed 15th.
But even though no German rider finished the Junior Grand Prix, it was nevertheless a day of great joy for Matthis Westendarp, for whom things weren’t really going as well in the course this weekend as he and all the spectators had expected. He also came in eighth in the Junior Grand Prix with Chillert Blue (v. Chacco-Blue) with eight fault points from his round. But this GP was also the final of the first-ever Bemer Young Riders Tour. There he led the ranking, and his fiercest competitors didn’t start in Peelbergen – so he took home the 32 points he had brought (by placing second in the stage in Zuidwolde and third in Hagen a.T.W.). He was the first „Rider of the Year“!
All results from Peelbergen here