The weather forecast was not very motivating prior to the weekend. Nevertheless it turned out that there was hardly any rain. On Friday about 14.00 o'clock the sky cleared up and provided perfect weather conditions for the buggy riding. With 8-10 sqm large kites those participants already present started their training.

Late afternoon the organization management started the registration. Each pilot received a „pilot registration card“ as well as a poster of the EuroCups series. Thereafter everybody went to the accommodation. At about 21,00 hrs is started to rain.

The next morning the organization team was already at 7,00 hrs at the beach and began to fix the boundaries and set up the course. At about 9,00 hrs all participants joined the general briefing so that the groups could be drawn using the pilot registration cards. During this process it started to rain but luckily stopped after half an hours time.

The first race of group A was started; perfect conditions for the sexangel course at 6 -7 beaufort. Already during the first run lines tore. The ground was partly so soft that despite the strong wind some buggies got stuck meaning heavy burden for the material as well for the pilot.

All 6 races could be carried out without any particular incidents. As the time schedule permitted the racing management decided to go for fun race, the winners per class could win a free dinner. Florian Kerker won in the Master Class Men, Ute Nissen Master Class Women, Jannick Schwickert Open Class Men, Lucas Einhaus Open Class Kiddies and Lars Pitsch Open Class Junior. In the evening approx. 30 persons met in Ouddorp for diner, Spare Ribs. As the race conditions were very demanding most participants went to bed quite early.

The next morning the orga team met at the beach at 8,00 hrs summer time and prepared again the area for the races. During the race briefing at 10,00 hrs is was announced who reached the final. For some it was a quite bad surprise since just 45% of the pilots per group reached the final. For the remaining ones there were just the repechage during which one resp. in the Master Men Class two pilots could qualify for the finals. After a tough fight Rolf Schäfer won in front of Pascal Lohmann and Benedikt Kerker.

The first final at 7 – 8 beaufort was won by Björn Krautschick before Florian Kerker. Michael Nast had to give up since his lines tore. He could however win the second final directly before Björn. In the overall ranking Björn placed himself in front of the Dutch Jort Buwalda and Florian Kerker.

During the first final in the Women Master Class Ute Nissen had bad luck as her kite had to give way to a Dutch front wheel. Wanda Hanemann won in the Women Master’s Class.

Under the prevailing difficult circumstances the kids had partly to use 1,5 JoJo ET, as the high skill performance kites were too demanding. Rene Wekker finally won before Dominik van Boven and Lucas Einhaus.

Our juniors placed themselves very well amongst the adults. Finally Arne Thamm and Lars Pitsch shared the first place in front of Fabian Ebbers.

There were furthermore two first places in the Open Men Class, Yannick Schwickert and the French Philippe Leroy ahead of the Dutch Camiel Rejhons.

In the Open Class Women there was just one participant from France.

This weekend as such was in general very successful for our sport and the racing series a very good guideline for the future. The officials present started already to develop plans for future international events.

I would finally like to express my thanks in the name of the GPA to the Dutch Buggyclub for the excellent organization as well as the president of the French Buggyclub “APC8”, who arrived esp. for the event in Bretagne to assist us during these 2 days, as well as to Jerome Grimminck (president of the “BCH”) for the very good cooperation and partnership before and during this event.

We look forward to a successful EuroCups Series 2006!