Hatherly Pulls Off Amazing Fightback To Finish Second at Lake Placid
Candice Lill fourth after setting early pace in women's race
Newly-crowned World Champion Alan Hatherly of South Africa fought back from a mid-race puncture to finish a remarkable second on the penultimate leg of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series at Lake Placid, US on Sunday to be almost guaranteed to win the World Series overall and cap off a year that also included an Olympic bronze medal.
Although the final results will only be decided at the final round in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, Hatherly has an almost unassailable 259-point lead over second-placed Frenchmen Victor Koretzky who won the race at the weekend.
In the women’s race, Cape Town’s Candice Lill continued her amazing run of form finishing a hard-fought fourth.
For Hatherly, the race started at a fast pace, as he and Victor Koretzky led the pack. Unfortunately, disaster struck on lap four when the South African suffered a rear flat tyre. Although he was able to reach the tech zone quickly, the time lost put him 41 seconds behind the leaders, dropping him back into 30th place. Showing incredible resilience, Hatherly clawed his way back through the field, reaching the lead group by the final lap. In a thrilling finish, he outsprinted most of his rivals, securing an impressive second place behind Koretzky, keeping his overall series lead intact with just one round remaining.
Lill, meanwhile, set the pace in the women’s race, leading a strong group of riders including Loana Lecomte, Savilia Blunk and Laura Stigger. Lill excelled on the climbs, consistently pushing the pace at the front. On the penultimate lap, it appeared as though Stigger was out of the running, leaving Lill and Lecomte to battle for the lead. However, Stigger made a remarkable recovery, rejoining the front group along with teammate Sina Frei. In the final sprint, Stigger edged out Frei for the win, while Lill fought valiantly to take fourth.
Lill currently lies third in the rankings, 329 points behind series leader, Allessandra Keller.
How the Women’s Race Unfolded
Stigger (Specialized Factory Racing) overcame what looked like a mid-race blow-up to outsprint team-mate Frei (Specialized Factory Racing) on the line to claim the American team’s third elite win of the weekend.
In what was an attritional race from the off, Lill set the early pace with a lead group including Lecomte (Canyon CLLCTV XCO), Blunk (Decathlon Ford Racing Team) and Stigger, while series leader Keller (Thömus Maxon) and Frei weren’t far behind.
On the long, drawn-out climb at the start of each loop, Lill would always be at the front, stretching her lead, but the group would soon bunch up again as the riders entered the descents and rock gardens that littered the second half.
The lead group was getting smaller with each lap though. First it was Keller who was dropped, while on lap four, home favourite Blunk went out the back after Stigger and Lecomte went on the offensive.
And then on the penultimate lap, it appeared that Stigger’s race was run – the Austrian unable to hold the pace of Lill and Lecomte as they powered their way up the lactic acid-inducing incline.
The Frenchwoman and 10-time UCI XCO World Cup winner appeared to have created a significant gap between her and Lill, and as she crossed the start-finish straight for the final time, her seven-second lead looked like it was only going to get bigger.
The chasing group of Rebecca Henderson (Primaflor Mondraker Racing Team), Stigger and Frei weren’t done yet though. Although the Australian was soon dropped, Stigger and Frei were soon bunched up with Lecomte and Lill, and it looked like it could end up being a four-up sprint for the line.
Stigger had other ideas. Mirroring Frei’s winning attack from the day before, the Austrian exploded out of the pits with Frei close behind – Lecomte unable to respond. In a two-way sprint, Stigger did enough to stay ahead of Frei, denying the Swiss rider of an XCC-XCO double, although the team-mates didn’t seem to mind as they celebrated with each other after crossing the line.
Lecomte pipped Lill on the line, while Henderson soloed her way to fifth to complete the podium.
How the Men’s Race Unfolded
After a frenetic and close-fought battle for the Women’s XCO, fans were treated to more of the same in the men’s final.
Hatherly (Cannondale Factory Racing) and Koretzky were dictating the early tempo but as the field crossed the start-finish straight for the first time, the lead group was still numbering 20-plus riders. The first flash point was a big crash by Martín Vidaurre (Specialized Factory Racing) – the Chilean hitting the deck in the first rock garden on lap two, and his bike narrowly missing team-mate Kortezky as it flew through the air. Despite getting back on his bike, he soon pulled over and appeared to be suffering from a broken collarbone.
On each climb, another rider took up the mantel – Mathis Azzaro (Decathlon Ford Racing Team), Filippo Colombo (Scott-SRAM MTB Racing Team), Marcel Guerrini (BIXS Performance Race Team) – but no one could make the attacks stick.
And then disaster struck for Hatherly. In the middle of lap four, the new UCI XCO World Champion suffered a rear flat. Fortunately for the South African, he was near to the tech zone. But it wasn’t ideal. With a gap of 41 seconds and 30-plus places to the lead, it was now advantage Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM MTB Racing Team) in the overall.
By the end of lap four, he’d made it back to 26th, but on such a fast course, it would take some serious racing to get back into contention.
The following lap, it was the turn of Schurter to suffer misfortune in the same spot – a flat front seeing the Swiss and South African leapfrog on the road and in the overall series.
At the front, the group looked like it had been whittled down to five during lap six, but with two to go, it had swelled to 11 again – including Hatherly.
Eleven became nine by the start of the final lap, and on the last long drag, it was Colombo who injected the pace. Koretzky was stuck firmly on his wheel, but the pace was too high for three riders including local favourite Chris Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing).
Just like in the women’s race, the sprints started in the final tech zone, and it was Colombo who looked strong and in control. But Koretzky showed why he’s the UCI XCC World Champion, laying down the hammer and outsprinting everyone on the line to take the double – his first since Les Gets, Haute-Savoie (France) in 2023.
Amazing, Hatherly recovered to take second, while Colombo settled for third. Guerrini finished fourth with Mathias Flückiger fifth.
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