The Longines Global Champions Tour and Global Champions League is setting up shop in Hamburg, Germany May 10th -12th for its fifth stop on the 2018 tour. Jumper Nation has the skinny on everything you need to know about this week’s competition.
The Schedule
Check out the CSI5* action on the docket in Hamburg below:
As always, you can keep up to date with all of the live action in Hamburg for free thanks to GCT TV.
The Riders
Hamburg will be host to many LGCT champions from both this year and years past. Two of the top five riders this season, Edwina Tops-Alexander and Pieter Devos, are slated to compete at Hamburg; you can bet that there will be a scramble to steal the top spot from the current leader, Scott Brash, who is sitting out this time around.
But Tops-Alexander and Devos has a ton of fierce competition from Devos’ home country to battle against. Wonder brothers Nicola and Olivier Philippaerts are giving Hamburg a go, along with the ever talented Gregory Wathelet. Wathelet and his phenomenal mare, Coree, came home with the win in the Grand Prix of Shanghai and we don’t imagine he is going to hold back in Germany.
Gregory Wathelet and Coree in Shanghai. Photo by LGCT / Mario Grassia
Egpyt’s Nayal Nassar is hoping to spin off of his success earlier this year after winning both the $100,000 Longines FEI World Cup Jumping Final and the $1 Million Grand Prix in California. Shanghai was his LGCT debut for 2018; perhaps he will be settled in for his second time around in Hamburg and can bring home a podium finish.
Harrie Smolders of the Netherlands holds the number one spot in the Longines world rankings for a reason—he is on fire! Smolders jumped in on the tour at the Shanghai stop and pulled out a win his first go-around and followed up with that victory with another in New York. Pair that with top placings in Paris, Lanaken and Bordeaux this spring and it’s obvious Smolders is one to watch this weekend.
Harrie Smolders on Monaco in Shanghai. Photo by Stefano Grasso/LGCT
The lone rider for the United States in Hamburg is Lillie Keenan. Keenan has sat out for the first four stops of the tour so far while competing in Florida and Europe. She brought home a first place in last week’s CSIYH1* last week at Redefin aboard Agana Van Het Gerendal Z along with a very respectable second place in April with her superstar mount, Super Sox, in the CSI3*.
For the full list of riders competing in Hamburg, click HERE.
The Global Champions League
The season started off all over the place with different teams rising to the top at each location, but Madrid seemed to be the sweet spot for one team to step in and take charge. The London Knights, comprised of Ben Maher, Martin Fuchs, Olivier Philippaerts, Nicola Philippaerts and Emily Moffitt, garnered their second consecutive win of the season which helped them secure the first place ranking with a total of 92 points.
2016 champion team Valkenswaard United currently stands in second with a total of 76 points. The team has come very close to victory, with a second place finish at Miami Beach and a third-place finish in Mexico City. They continue to shake things up by shuffling their riders throughout each weekend—we are curious to see who they will put in for Hamburg.
The third, fourth, and fifth placed teams only have a handful of points between one another so it is very possible we could see some movement on the team rankings in Hamburg. Close behind fifth place team Doha Fursan Qatar are the Rome Gladiators with 57 points, and the Shanghai Swans sit just behind them at 56 points. For full team rankings click HERE.
Go Jumping!