Hartherly Excels at U23 World Cup XCO Opener


Michael Finch |

21-year-old Team Spur rider, Alan Hatherly, storms to sixth position at the UCI XCO season opener in the Czech Republic.

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Alan Hatherly found himself on the front row at the first round of the UCI World Cup XCO series in Nové Město owing to his recent victory at the African Continental Champs.

Armed with tremendous technical skills, he thrived on the steep climbs, technical downhills and treacherous rock gardens of the iconic course. He raced hard from the start and focussed on staying withing the top five – but his race almost ended in tears where a rock forced him off course on one of the descents costing him a couple of positions.

On the last three laps of the race however, he managed to find a good rhythm and subsequently pushed the climbs hard and attacked the descents – this proved fruitful.

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“With one lap to go I saw the chase group was just in front of me so I pushed really hard to catch them because I had heard Susi [Christoph Sauser] out on course say that it was just 10 seconds to podium.”

He managed to pass two more riders on the last lap and narrowly missed out on a top five, finishing in sixth spot.

“I’m very stoked on how smooth everything ran out there – aside from the mishap in the first lap – but I’m feeling really good and I was strong on the climbs so I’m looking forward to Germany next week.”

Round 2 of the UCI XCO World Cup takes place at Albstadt in Germany over the weekend of the 27-28 May.

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