During the Belgian Arden Challenge race in the province of Luxembourg, a horse suddenly walked onto the road on Wednesday. The animal followed the peloton and Lars Daniels also saw this. The 23-year-old rider of Antwerp Cycling Team Kontich was able to grab the animal by the reins and calm it down with his own hands. View the images from the trailer here.
Marnix Taes, Michiel Thijs
Yesterday at 7:20 PM
Cyclist Lars Daniels from Herk-de-Stad saw the saddled horse walking, without a rider nearby. “I thought: how do I solve this? Because the horse kept storming, and if the animal were to run into the peloton or be hit by the support vehicles, the damage would be incalculable,” he says.
“I decided to ride next to it to reassure the horse. I grabbed the reins and hit the brakes as hard as I could to bring the animal to a stop. Soon a police officer on a motorcycle came to tell me that he would take over, because of course I had to move on as quickly as possible. Apparently the rider was already approaching at that moment, following the back of another police motorcycle.”
In the support car there was appreciation for the young rider: “He knows something about it. Congratulations to that boy.” That impression is also correct. “I do indeed have some experience with horses. As a little boy, I grew up at a horse riding school, and today I still go to jumping events and I have some friends who still often ride horses,” says Lars.
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The incident occurred less than 10 kilometers from the finish. The young rider could therefore forget about a good result. “But I didn’t participate for the prizes anyway. Fortunately, things just went downhill there, and thanks to the support vehicles I was able to quickly rejoin the peloton. In the end I was able to enter together with the rest of the group,” he says.
The incident is reminiscent of last year’s Strade Bianche Donne. Also then, a horse ran up one of the famous Tuscan gravel roads in full final and the animal ran at high speed in front of the escaped Demi Vollering. Unlike the Limburg rider, the Dutch rider screamed out in an attempt to chase it away.
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Tags: VIDEO Promising rider Antwerps team takes stray horse reins full speed grew riding school
