What. A. Man but also What. A. Horse. In again a class for the World Cup Ranking the competition stood no chance against Lyon's (probably) most powerful pair of the moment. The French rider simply blows his opponents away in his ride to another victory.
The combinations were tested throughout two rounds but only ten of them actually made it into the second one. Amongst those ten combinations, only two of them were able to stay double clear. The Dutch Jur Vrieling was one of them and kept Comme Laude W (v. Comme Il Faut) at his sharpest. But along came Epaillard. Together with Donatello d'Auge (v. Jarnac) the French rider did best and was almost two (!) seconds faster than the Dutchman and his gelding, leaving them in second and taking another victory to add to their list. Penelope Leprevost took third place on Texas (v. Tornesch 1042) after collecting four penalties in their second round.
The public in Lyon could've witnessed a full French stage but Vrieling prevented this. Megane Moissonnier counted on Bracadabra (v. Pacific des Essarts), the eleven year old gelding had one pole down in his first round. Romeo (v. Contact van de Heffinck) on the other hand touched the wood in his second round but still gave Harry Charles a fifth place.