Roger Yves Bost became the hero of the day when he rounded of a weekend with strong French performances in Lyon, by winning the third leg of the Longines FEI World Cup in the Western European League. Bosty rode the 10 year old son of his former top horse Ideal de la Loge in Lyon; Qoud'Coeur de la Loge. It was no doubt a special win for the reigning European Champion, who already had an emotional weekend as he thanked off his gold medallist from Herning – Castle Forbes Myrtille Paulois – with an official retirement ceremony yesterday.

Fourty riders had qualified for the World Cup in Lyon, and course-designer Frank Rothenberger's track was as always a tough one. In the end fourteen went clear, while no less than seven riders chose to retire. The top three on the Longines Ranking, Scott Brash, Ludger Beerbaum and Marcus Ehning, surprisingly all suffered the same faith when the final fence fell to the ground – a set of white planks. Bost explained the difficulty with the course by saying, "The problem was that horses had to give so much at the previous oxer, so it was up to the rider to keep their focus and momentum coming down to the last fence. I had to cut my distance short and go on a long stride, and that worked for me."

The pathfinder in the jump-off was the Netherland's Wout-Jan van der Schans who has been in tremendous form this year with Capetown (Oklund x Carlino). The pair continued to impress today, and kept the Dutch standards high when riding a blistering fast round to set the time to beat at 37.24 seconds. Fourth to go, Germany's Hans-Dieter and Embassy ll (Escudo I x Silvio I) gave Van der Schans a run for the money though. The stunning stallion jumped absolutely fantastic, but was over a second behind on the clock when finishing the round.

Cheered on by the home crowds with their "Allez", Bosty listened to his orders and went all in from the very beginning. In true Bosty-style the French rider raced around the shortened track taking every possible risk there was to take cutting the time down to an incredible 36.82 seconds. The crowds went wild as a home hero went into the lead. Could this mean yet another French win?

And yes, Bosty's time would prove impossible to beat. His compatriot Simon Delestre tried his best though, and posted the quickest time of the day at 35.89 with Qlassic Bois Margot (l'Arc de Triomphe x Galoubet A), but had the penultimate oxer down to eventually finish fifth as the Netherlands' Gerco Schröder opted for a safe clear round on Cognac Champblanc (Clearway) to take the fourth place.

Qoud'Coeur de la Loge won the three star Grand Prix at St Lo last weekend, and Bosty explained a little about his wining partner after the class: "He is a horse with huge potential and we are carefully planning his career. I want to save him a bit as well, choosing the shows he goes to, but I'm super-confident about his future and very happy with him," he said. "He's very similar to Ideal, not just physically but in his attitude as well," Bost said afterwards.

Wout-Jan van der Schans was more than happy to end second. "I was first to go in the jump-off so I had to be super-fast and, to be honest, I feel like I won today! I couldn't do the WEG because the horse was a bit green and not ready and I was a bit frustrated about that. But we went to the Nations Cup Final in Barcelona and we won the Grand Prix there on the Sunday, and today he gave me everything he had, so I think he is great!' he added.

Bost made another little piece of equestrian history today when he was the first French rider ever to win the FEI World Cup qualifier in Lyon. "It's a very special thing to happen on the 20th anniversary of our show," said show director Sylvie Robert this evening.

Result: 1, Qoud'Coeur de la Loge (Roger Yves Bost) FRA 0/0 36.82; 2, Capetown (Wout-Jan van der Schans) NED 0/0 37.24; 3, Embassy ll (Hans-Dieter Dreher) GER 0/0 38.41; 4, Cognac Champblanc (Gerco Schroder) NED 0/0 44.38; 5, Qlassic Bois Margot (Simon Delestre) 0/4 35.89; 6, Ohlala (Lauren Hough) USA 0/4 36.54; 7, Casall Ask (Rolf-Goran Bengtsson) SWE 0/4 37.67; 8, Admirable (Marie Etter-Pellegrin) SUI 0/4 38.12; 9, Dream of India Greenfield (Pieter Devos) BEL 0/4 39.34; 10, Dimaro vd Looise Heide (Dag Ove Kingsrod) NOR 0/4 42.97; 11, Diaghilev (Billy Twomey) IRL 0/8 38.42; 12, Pommeau du Heup (Niels Bruynseels)BEL 0/8 40.68; 13, Carinjo HDC (Patrice Delaveau) FRA 0/8 44.20; 14, Reveur de Hurtebise HDC (Kevin Staut) FRA 0/12.

Source: fei.org