It was a difficult task that faced the riders in the Rolex Grand Prix in Den Bosch on Sunday afternoon, but that did not get to France's leading rider Kevin Staut who after two fantastic clear rounds took home the win by the tiniest of margins with 0.01 seconds. It was a good day for the French, as Kevin's long time girlfriend Penelope Leprevost ended third. The class opened quite dramatically as Pius Schwizer looked set for a clear round, but his rein snapped after the wall at fence ten and the Swiss rider sadly had to withdraw. One rider later Leprevost set the first clear of the day though, riding Nice Stephanie (Cardento x Ralme Z) determinedly around the thirteen fence track. Five riders more left the ring with faults, and when the next clear round came it was from Staut and Silvana HDC (Corland x Widor) securing a jump-off with two French riders in it. More drama followed as Maikel van der Vleuten left the ring with two refusals, Hamad Ali Mohamed A Al Attiyah fell off Bellan Donna 66 (Baldini II x Calido I) at the wall and Christian Ahlmann's Aragon Z wanting to extit the ring halfway the course, giving him a refusal but keeping all the poles place. Penelope Lefrost openend up the jump-off on Nice Stephanie and went all in from the beginning. Next in was Kevin, and he showed no mercy on Silvana HDC. When he landed after the combination he was already ahead of Penelope, and with an extremely fast turn back from the penultimate vertical to the final Rolex oxer he took over the lead by 0.15 seconds. When Joe had the front pole on the first oxer down, and Bertram had two down the door was left open for Marco Kutscher. Putting Cornet's Cristallo in top gear Marco showed he was in it to win, and it looked like he was about to until he put in an extra stride to the final Rolex oxer costing him the win by a mere 0.01 seconds. Click here for full results. source: World of Showjumping/Equnews
