SA’s Day Of Glory! How Hatherly Won the Rainbow Stripes
A day for the history books!
SA’s Alan Hatherly became the first rider from Africa to win the World XCO mountain bike title in Andorra on Sunday.
The 28-year-old Hatherly, who grew in Durban and Cape Town, took the coveted rainbow stripes when he beat Olympic silver medallist Victor Koretsky (France) and British Olympic champion Tom Pidcock over a thrilling six laps of the Pal Arinsal course. Hatherly took the title with a 22-second gap over Koretzky, while Pidcock was 39 seconds down.
I’m really emotional to be honest. I knew I had good legs but to be able to win like that is a dream come true.
With warnings of an approaching storm, the decision was made to run the two men’s finals early, and race the Women Elite and Women Under 23 simultaneously, most reduced by 1 lap. All were completed in good weather and safe conditions.
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How the Men’s Elite Race Unfolded
The early pace came from newly-crowned XCC UCI World Champion Koretzky and bronze medalist Hatherly (RSA), along with Frenchman Jordan Sarrou, Mathias Flückiger (SUI) and Luca Schwarzbauer (GER).
Even at six laps it was a race of attrition, with gaps stretching out throughout the field and stars such as Nino Schurter (SUI), Christopher Blevins (USA) and Sam Gaze (NZL) outside of the top 10.
Onto the penultimate lap, Hatherly and Koretzky were seven seconds ahead of two Britons: Olympic Champion Pidcock and XCC silver medallist Charlie Aldridge. Mathis Azzaro (FRA) and Luca Braidot (ITA) were the only other riders within 30 seconds of the leaders.
The Frenchman attacked on the last long climb, and the South African matched him, then went past and never looked back. Hatherly – after bronze in the XCC, bronze at the Olympics and winning the most recent UCI World Cup round at Les Gets, France – was on fire. He adds the 2024 XCO rainbow jersey to his 2018 Under-23 XCO and 2019 E-MTB cross-country (E-MTB) titles.
“I’m really emotional to be honest. I knew I had good legs but to be able to win like that is a dream come true,” said Hatherly. “Those bands are going to stay on my arm forever and I’m looking forward to wearing them for the rest of the season and next season for sure.”
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