An unbelievable scenario
 
Frank Rothenberger, the course designer, had announced the difficulty of his course to the press in advance: “As there were sixteen clear rounds in Leipzig, I thought I’d change the standard level and this course is without doubt the most difficult one I’ve constructed this season.” Thus tonight’s winner of this bordelaise World Cup stage is a true champion.
 
The champion we’re speaking of is no other than Marcus Ehning, which doesn’t seem too surprising to many spectators – however, the scenario that brought him this first victory of a World Cup stage was unimaginable.
From the first round on, the competitors didn’t have a single moment of respite: the diabolic course was a trap for a rider’s slightest loss of concentration, faults everywhere. Not one of the twelve obstacles (in fact there were fifteen if one counts the combinations) was spared tonight - they all went down.
If a couple got through the first “crazy diagonal” that sent off to a triple assassin from the vertical (#3) on, the other fences were holding out for them on every corner of the course. The cracks (such as last year’s world n°2 Albert Zoer, 16 points with Sam) as well as the outsiders (like Swiss Daniel Etter, even though winner of the first two stages, also 16 points) fell, one after the other. It wasn’t until the fifteenth contestant that the audience saw a clear round by Ludger Beerbaum’s young disciple, Philippe Weishaupt (25 year-olds). “It’s true, I stressed a bit at the sight of the paddock as I found the course truly difficult, and hearing the results did not necessarily encourage me. In the end, everything went great! For a long time, I was the only one with a clean round. The more I saw the other riders making faults, the happier I got… until Marcus Ehning arrived.”
Ehning had also doubts in the warming up arena: “After having walked the course, I thought I had an idea of what to do, but as I saw the faults accumulate, I progressively changed my initial plans.”
The world’s n°3 had obviously found solutions quite quickly, and so Leconte joined Catoki for a jump-off that none of the two protagonists really enjoyed: “It’s not easy to go second when there had been a fast run with one fault before you. You don’t know whether to risk and go fast as well, or make it a slower but clear round. I started with solution number two, but then I made this mistake that I am solely responsible for. I had to speed up and it just passed, but really just passed”, stated Marcus Ehning with a broad smile on his face.
But apparently starting a two-contestant-jump-off is not much more enjoyable:
“It’s not easy to go first knowing there is only one more competitor to come, especially when this contestant is Marcus Ehning. I should actually be happy to finish second tonight, after this tough course. I can’t help but feeling regret, though, for losing by one hundredth of a second. Do you know what that means, one hundredth of a second on a course of 250 metres? Three and a half centimetres! Marcus has had enough victories, with three and a half centimetres I could have taken this one from him”, concludes young Philippe.