It was the desired result in the well-filled stadium in Rotterdam and was celebrated accordingly: The Dutch team, which has already won the home nation award there in the past two years, carried the victory this year as well. Hattrick achieved!
But this victory was in the balance until the last rider, the Irishman Michael Duffy. By that time, Michael Duffy led with a total of four points from both rounds ahead of the Dutch riders: on Cinca (v. Casall), Trevor Breen on Highland President (v. Clinton), Cian O’Connor on Eve d’OUilly (v. Qlassie Bois Margot) and Daniel Coyle on Gisborne VDL (v. Zirocco Blue). On those rounds, Jur Vrieling on Long John Silver (v. Lasino), Leopold van Asten on VDL Groep Iron Z (v. Charisma), Maikel van der Vleuten on O’Baily vh Bouwershof (v. Darco) and Harrie Smoldders on Monaco N.O.P. (v. Cassini II) had collected six points in two rounds – the sixth point went to the head of the final rider, Harrie Smolders, who also wanted to stay absolutely without contact in his second round and took a little more time than allowed.
But in the second round, Ireland’s last-man-standing, Daniel Coyle, rolled a pole out of the stands halfway through, and already it was 6:8 in favor of the Netherlands. The Irish became second.
And behind that?
The good news first: For the third time in a row, Team Germany has finished third. That means first place in the overall standings of the Longines FEI Nations Cup on the way to the final in Barcelona with 240 points ahead of Switzerland (which was not in Rotterdam) with 170 points and the overall title holders from Belgium with 155 points.
The second best news: The two amazons who started for Germany in Rotterdam delivered two excellent rounds each. Starter Jana Wargers, who also opened the Nations Cup as the first rider in general, came to the finish line with Dorette (v. Dollar du Murier) without any errors the first time, with a slight error the second time. The second starter for Team Germany, Kendra Claricia Brinkop on In Time (v. Biscayo), did almost the same thing, only in reverse: a slight error in the first round, without any errors in the second.
But above all, in Round One, the same problem existed for the other two German riders as for many of their colleagues. A mistake-monger apparently went wild in Rotterdam. After all, when has it ever happened that eight of the best teams in Europe fail to finish at least one round with zero in the team result? And when has it ever happened that one of the world’s best riders finishes both rounds in the Nations Cup prematurely?
Just under two weeks ago, Marcus Ehning had won the German Championship in Balve with Priam du Roset (v. Plot Blue) in the final hurdle race. On this Friday in Rotterdam, he opened his first lap as the last rider with a throw at the first obstacle, followed by another at the second one, and – at some point, „Il Maestro“ prematurely took his partner, who was obviously indisposed that day, out of the course and became a disqualification result. This was bitter for the team, because earlier, Hansi Dreher had also lost the lead with Cous Cous (v. Cachas): the jump before the obstacle after the triple did not fit, the chestnut jumped through the bars and could not really find his rhythm again. 12 fault points were recorded.
In the second round, Priam left the first obstacle untouched; on the second round he knocked at it a few times; there were two more attempts and again the premature end. Fortunately, Hansi Dreher was back in rhythm in his second round with Cous Cous. While on the way, a pole fell; however, the total number of errors of 24 points was enough to place third on this Friday.
Why? Yes, because France was similarly plagued by misfortune and needed a total of three and a half seconds more for its 24 points. That meant for the Tricolore Team fourth place ahead of Italy with 36 points.
But the biggest surprise was the sixth place for the successful Belgians, who last autumn had won the final in Barcelona and are therefore defending champions this year. Gilles Thomas on Aretino, Pieter Devos on Nascar van’t Siamshof, Niels Bruynseels on Delux van T&L and Jerome Guery on Cristel still accumulated a total of 37 points in their two laps, after deducting the results from the other drivers.
The conclusion of Bundestrainer Otto Becker: „We were now in third place three times and have good chances to qualify for the Nations Cup final in Barcelona. Kendra Brinkop and Jana Wargers did a great job today, and Hansi Dreher also had a good run in the second round. With Marcus Ehning and Priam du Roset, we have to say that they were both not in top form today. The course was well built but very technically demanding, which is why we probably saw more errors today than in the Nations Cup races of the past weeks.“
The complete result from Rotterdam here
The current standings of the overall standings here