Following a challenging course from Frank Rothenberger for the first round of the GCL Hamburg, plenty of the world's best fell short of the time allowed, depsite brilliant clears.
Philippaerts, whose blistering round on the much-admired dapple grey H&M Harley VD Bisschop, was the only one to break the beam in under 70 seconds, and put the pedal to the metal to shoot to the top of the individual lead. With horsepower clearly the order of the day, the popular rider picked up the hefty winner’s prize of €59,000 as well as a Mercedes C Class car.