Jun 13, 2023
Maikel van der Vleuten won the five-star Global Champions Tour Grand Prix de Cannes on Saturday afternoon. With his best horse, Beauville, the current No. 4 in the FEI world rankings beat 12 competitors in the tiebreaker.
The Dutchman was the last to go in the tiebreaker. He was no less than 0.55 seconds faster than Pieter Devos, who came second with Mom's Toupie de la Roque (by Kannan). Michael Duffy finished third in 40.15 seconds.
The victory secured Van der Vleuten a ticket to the circuit's Super Final in Prague and strengthened his position as leader of the Longines Global Champions Tour standings, which he leads after six of the 15 races. Maikel van der Vleuten, the last to take to the track, had a fantastic starting position in front of the packed Cannes grandstands, and he lived up to it.
"The level of competition was high. The 12 competitors put me under pressure. I had to take some risks, but then I don't want to take over Beauville. It was very easy in the jump-off. Today I was able to win in a very positive way. It was a difficult competition. I am very happy with my horse." Van der Vleuten also had a special success in Cannes on Friday with the victory with Dywis HH (by Toulon) in the 1.55m and second place with Beauville Z N.O.P. in the 1.60m, a qualifying event for the Grand Prix. Thanks to all this, Maikel continues to score points for the FEI world rankings. This month he has moved up two places to number 4.
After six of the 15 rounds of the Global Champions Tour, Van der Vleuten has consolidated her position as leader. He is more than 40 points ahead of Germany's Christian Kukuk. Van der Vleuten's next competition on the Global Champions Tour will be in Monte Carlo on the last weekend of June.
As far as the Global Champions Tour is concerned, it was Riesenbeck International who won in Cannes. This is his third victory in the six rounds that have been played so far this season.
Unfortunately Madrid in Motion had its worst test to date. Having made the podium on three occasions, this allowed the Madrid-based team to arrive at Cannes in first place in the rankings. A position that, unfortunately, they were unable to maintain after the Cannes event. This poor score has caused them to drop to third place with 122 points. Ahead of them are Riesenbeck International with 132 points and Paris Panthers with 128 points.