Team Valkenswaard, winner of the Global Champions League Marques de Riscal Trophy at the CSI5* Madrid

Thirteen teams competed in the two qualifying rounds, Marqués de Riscal Trophy, for the Global Champions League of the Longines Global Champions Tour of Madrid. Only two of them managed to finish the first test, disputed on heights of 1'55 meters, with zero points, that is, without any of the two sets of the team had penalty, Valkenswaard United and Riesenbeck International.

In the second test, held on heights of 1'60 meters, both the Dutch and German teams kept the same riders: Gilles Thomas and John Whitaker for the Dutch team and Cristian Kukuk and Philipp Weishaupt for the German team.

The strategy was more positive for Valkenswaard United, since Gilles Thomas repeated zero with “Ermitage Kalone”, penalizing only 1 point for time, and John Whitaker, penalized 6 points also for time with “Equine America Unick du FrancPort”, while Riesenbeck International dropped positions on the podium finishing the second round with 8 points, thus being in third position.

In second position was the host team, Madrid In Motion, formed by the Spanish rider Eduardo Alvarez Aznar and Maikel Van der Vleuten, who finished both tests with 8 points, with a brilliant double zero in the second test, in which the Spaniard used “Rokfeller”, instead of “D'Orient”, with which he had ridden the first one. Maikel Van der Vleuten had a knockdown in the first test with “Dywis” and repeated it also in the second with “Beauville Z”.

As for the individual classifications of each of the two tests, the first one was won by the English Ben Maer riding “Exit Remo”, while the second one was won by the Austrian Max Kühner with “EIC Up Too Jacco Blue”.

In the first test, the Spaniard Eduardo Alvarez Aznar was third with “D'Orient Batilly”, while in the second, qualifying for the Grand Prix Longines Global Champions Tour, Armando Trapote was fourth with “Tornado VS”, Eduardo Alvarez Aznar was sixth thanks to his zero with the great “Rokfeller” and Sergio Alvarez Moya, ninth with “Jackson”.

After these results from the Madrid venue, the provisional classification of the Global Champions League is very tight, led by Cannes Stars with 87 points. Second is Stockholm Hearts with 86 points and Valkenswaard United is in third place with 84 points.