3 December 2017
Boedapest: Koos de Ronde nabs a surprising win
Koos de Ronde surprised everyone with a hat trick, winning the World Cup four-in-hand driving in Budapest for the third year in a row. De Ronde qualified for the winning round with IJsbrand Chardon and Jèrôme Voutaz, but with 10 penalty points for knockdowns he was not happy with his drive when he left the ring.
Koos de Ronde
Photo: Krisztina Horváth
“I thought that IJsbrand and Jérôme would be fighting it out for first place and that my chances were minimal. I didn’t even stay to watch, but my wife Marie came back to tell me that IJsbrand had knocked down three balls and Jérôme four which meant that we unexpectedly won,” says a happy Koos de Ronde.
De Ronde made the decision after the first competition on Saturday to switch his wheeler Amadeo out for the pinto Halloween: “It was an extremely technical course, almost too technical. Halloween is better with this kind of course than Amadeo and this paid off with our round today being seven seconds faster than Saturday. The first round went really well today, and with the two knockdowns in the Winning Round I was convinced that I had ended up third. Luckily for me Chardon and Voutaz both made mistakes, and with this course it was too difficult to recover once you were out of your rhythm.
Voutaz ended up in second place and IJsbrand Chardon in third. World Cup debutant Bram Chardon finished in fourth place and was happy with the result: “On Saturday my team drove wonderfully and we set down a time that was not met for the rest of the competition. After a disappointing second round I drove a safer round today and took less risks. It was a shame that I had an unlucky knockdown in the last part of the course, but this team shows a lot of promise for the future! It was an unbelievable experience to get to drive here, and I know that this team has the potential to win, but if it will happen this season we will have to wait and see!”
Click here for the photo album.
Uitslagen CAI-W Boedapest 2017
- Koos de Ronde (NED) 247,74
- Jérôme Voutaz (SUI) 250,89
- IJsbrand Chardon (NED) 251,89
- Bram Chardon (NED) 123,18
- József Dobrovitz jr. (HUN) 130,07
- Benjamin Aillaud (FRA) 141,94
- József Dobrovitz (HUN) 164,56
Stand na 3 van de 7 wedstrijden:
1 Boyd EXELL AUS 20
2 IJsbrand CHARDON NED 12
3 Koos DE RONDE NED 10
3 Edouard SIMONET BEL 10
5 Chester WEBER USA 8
6 Jérôme VOUTAZ SUI 7
7 Georg VON STEIN GER 5
8 Benjamin AILLAUD FRA 4
9 Bram CHARDON NED 3
10 Glenn GEERTS BEL 2
