Jessica Springsteen won her most beautiful victory in Saint-Tropez

Last Saturday was the second victory of Jessica Springsteen career after the one in the CSI5* of Saugerties in 2016 on Cynar VA. Even if the first round might have seemed too easy as fourteen pairs managed to realize a clear round, the jump-off reunited some of the best riders of the world for a tense competition. First to go, Pieter Devos and Claire Z, in great shape since the Longines European Championship were perfect. They were followed by many many couples even if some great names did not managed to stay clear. That was the case for Luciana Diniz and Vertigo du Desert with four points on the first vertical. As for Denis Lynch with his new horse LS La Silla, he was penalized on the last oxer. Penelope Leprevost and Vancouver Lanlore finished with the same score.  Unusual for Daniel Deusser, he ended with two faults on his faithful Scuderia 1918 Tobago Z. With Tempo de Paban, Olivier Robert realized a round with eight points too.

With fourteen qualified for the second round, for sure, riders had to take all the risks to be victorious. First to go, Belgium’s Pieter Devos put a lot of pressure on his opponents. Fast and clear he stayed leader for a long time. To overthrow him, riders gave everything and sometimes it was too much and faults arrived. That was the case for Germany’s Christian Kukuk on Limonchello TN, Belgium’s Jos Verlooy on Igor, United States’ Kent Farrington with Austria 2, Germany’s Marco Kutscher and Maurice Tebbel respectively on Casallvano and Don Diarado, France’s Kevin Staut on For Joy van’t Zorgvliet HDC. Despite those unfortunates, eight pairs were clear. Among them, Sweden’s Henrick Von Eckermann on Best Boy 2, Netherlands’ Eric Van Der Vleuten with Wunschkind 19 and Marc Houtzager on Sterrehof’s Dante, Belgium’s Jos Verlooy, and Columbia’s Carlos Enrique Lopez Lizarazo with Ulhane de Conde were not fast enough to claim the victory. France’s Simon Delestre on his flying Hermes Ryan des Hayettes was the first one who really threatened Pieter Devos. But it was still not fast enough and they had to settle for the third place. Finally, it was United States’ Jessica Springsteen who stole the victory from the Belgian.

Full results here