On Saturday evening, reigning world champion Boyd Exell went away with the win after an exciting drive-off.

Dutch course builder Jeroen Houterman had built a technical course that included two marathon obstacles and a bridge that had to be taken twice. In the basic round, many balls fell in the sand in the rides of Benjamin Aillaud, Glenn Geerts and Michael Brauchle. As in Friday's warm-up round, the Dutch riders did good business and qualified for the drive-off with one dropped ball and a fast time, where they faced the always fast Boyd Exell.

IJsbrand Chardon was the first to ride into the arena for the drive-off. In an unprecedented fast ride, he left all the balls on the cones and thus increased the pressure on his colleagues. Then it was the turn of Koos de Ronde, who made an error in the first marathon obstacle and therefore came third. De Ronde: "As the second rider in the winning round, I went full steam ahead, but in the first obstacle I made a mistake by riding from gate D to F, then I had to detour for gate E and I knew I couldn't win. But I am happy with my third place because my horses did well, it was my error. On to the next race."

As the last starter, Boyd Exell left no doubt that he was going for the win. With a bizarrely sharp ride, he managed to improve on Chardon's time. "I have a great team. They are super fast and can turn sharp to the left and right. My groom Emma was also great today. She was incredibly sharp and told me loud and clear when I was looking too much at the cones on the ground instead of forward. I think she was maybe even more fanatical than me today," Exell said.

IJsbrand Chardon was happy with his second place. "In Lyon I was also second, so that was already a good start. It was not difficult to get into the second round here because of the many mistakes of the other riders. In the drive-off I only started driving fast to increase the pressure on Boyd, but unfortunately Boyd was faster. Boyd is happy and I am happy. It was great to ride here in front of my own crowd. Maastricht is my home, I have ridden many races and demonstrations here. The organisation and the public here are really great."

(Source: KNHS/Hoefnet.nl)