Denis Lynch and Abbervail van het Dingeshof - here seen in Gothenburg. Photo (c) Jenny Abrahamsson.
The two opening five star classes in Bordeaux went to Ireland’s Denis Lynch and Bertram Allen. Lynch collected 20,300 Euro for his victory in the feature speed class, the Prix Generali, riding the 15 year old Abbervail van het Dingeshof (Nonstop x Jus de Pomme). Coming in towards the end of the field of 38 riders, Lynch finished his round over the twelve fence track – which counted a triple combination as the penultimate challenge – in an incredible time of 55.73 seconds. With his round, Lynch pushed Germany's Daniel Deusser down to second after he had taken an early lead following a brilliant round on Espyrante (Obourg x Pauillac De Meia Lua).
Third place went to France’s own Kevin Staut riding Silvana HDC (Corland x Widor), while Katharina Offel was fourth on B Once Z (Baloubet du Rouet x Lavaletto) and Wout-Jan van der Schans fifth on Aquila SFN (Ovidius x Lauriston).
The 19 year old Bertram Allen won the opening international speed class on Wild Thing L (Montreux x Lux) with almost three seconds down to Belgium’s Constant Van Paesschen and Diamanthina van't Ruytershof (Diamant de Semilly x Carthago). Billy Twomey, also Irish, ended third on Royale du Rouet (Jeff D'or x Kannan).