The French rider takes no prisoners on his way to a Global Champions Tour victory.

Roger-Yves Bost made it clear that he was on a mission during the $397,062 Grand Prix of Cannes, the fourth leg of the Global Champions Tour. Perhaps being in front of a capacity home crowd on June 13 in Cannes, France, is what made the difference, but it was certainly also a case of fortune favoring the brave.

Bost and his Ideal de la Loge posted the only double-clear performance in the two-round competition—with a breath-taking round that nearly caused mass hysteria among the French spectators—to take the top spot on the podium and the winner’s share of $132,354.

“I have not jumped so much at this show,” said Bost later, “but I think this is OK for a few minutes of work!”

As ever, with so many of the world’s best in attendance, winning even a warm-up class isn’t easy, and course designer Serge Houtmann didn’t leave any margins for error.

In the earlier classes, there had been wins for Germany (Daniel Deusser), Belgium (Ludo Philippaerts), Great Britain (Michael Whitaker), Brazil (Alvaro de Miranda) and France (Olivier Guillon), and the competition had been fierce.

Sadly for the French, their chances of a grand prix win took a turn for the worse when, during a novelty relay class, Michel Robert had a crashing fall and broke a collarbone. Denis Lynch of Ireland was also in the wars, a back problem getting so bad he enlisted the help of John Whitaker to ride the horses in the warm-up. Nevertheless, the French had much to cheer for on Sunday.

The first round of the grand prix proved more difficult than it looked, but few would have thought last year’s winners Shutterfly and Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum would have one down. In the end, 11 finished clear, three on 1 time penalty and several fast four-faulters did qualify for Round 2, including the World Cup winner.

In the second round the time was tight, but after Shutterfly and Albert Zoer on Okidoki had added nothing to their earlier penalties and made the time as well, the ground jury decided to leave the time allowed as it was set.

A tricky curving line from fences 6 to 7, facing toward the crowd, proved to be the undoing of Anthem and Laura Kraut, among others, who hit both fences.

Britain’s Ben Maher was first to go double clear over the fences, but he fell victim to the clock on Robin Hood W. Lynch was next in and also left all of the fences up but was even slower and added 2 time penalties to Latinus’ score.

Deusser showed no ill effects after jet setting between this show and the German Championships in Balve, riding a beautiful round on his new ride AD Aboyeur. Although fractionally faster than Maher, he too received a time fault, which left him second.

Bost was almost last to go and set off like a man possessed. With gasp from the spectators, he cut corners and didn’t take a single pull on Ideal de la Loge’s reins. He was rewarded for his audacity with the first completely clean double-clear score.

Then he waited while Philippaerts attempted to do better on new ride Sherry du Mury Marais Z, recently acquired from Patrick McEntee to replace Winningmood. The lack of experience as a combination told the tale, and had 17 faults, leaving Bost the winner.

Maher, eventually third, was gracious in defeat and summed up the result perfectly.

“I could not have done more to win myself; the time was very tight,” he said. “But Roger was braver than the rest of us—he turned tighter and cut more corners—so today his horse was better and he deserved to win. I’m very pleased to be third under the circumstances!”

Lynch now leads the current standings to qualify for the Global Champions Tour Finals in Doha, Qatar, in November, but the rankings are extremely tight, with lots of points and prize money to play for before the top 30 are decided.

For the U.S. riders in the grand prix, it wasn’t their day. Richard Spooner’s Cristallo didn’t make the cut for the second round, nor did Lauren Hough with Urgent (both had 8 faults), but Kraut’s grand prix veteran Anthem did post a clear round. Their 13 faults in the second round left them 14th, however.

Hough did place fourth on Urgent in the Prix Generali and was quite pleased, according to Mary Mackenzie, one of her horse owners. “This was Urgent’s first 1.50-meter class, so that was a really good result,” said Mackenzie, who is in Europe to support Hough.

Spooner and Kraut had joined Hough in Cannes from the Meydan Nations Cup series, but rosettes were slightly harder to come by here than they had been in prev-ious weeks for the all-conquering United States.

“I’m staying in Europe for the rest of the GCT shows,” said Spooner, “and will go home after Rio De Janeiro [Brazil]. I could have stayed in the United States, but I’ve done the summer circuit there before so I thought it would be nice to stay here. I will also be competing in San Patrignano, Italy, if all goes to plan.”

Spooner just has Cristallo and Pako on European duty; Ace had to return home after the Rome CSIO in May due to the 60-day rules regarding stallions residing abroad.