Alan Hatherly overcame high altitude and low confidence to place second in the U23 cross country race at the third round of the UCI MTB World Cup in Vallnord, Andorra, yesterday.
The 21-year-old South African went into the race with the goal of finishing on the podium and ended up capturing his best World Cup result to date – one second behind winner Simon Andreassen.
Alan Hatherly, Simon Andreassen and Martins Blums topped the podium at the third round of the UCI MTB World Cup Series in Andorra on Sunday. Photo: Team Spur
“I’m super happy with my second place and with the finish coming down to a sprint definitely gives me confidence in my form for this weekend’s World Cup in Lenzerheide,” said the Team Spur rider.
“I wanted to be on the podium because I wanted to prove to myself it was possible.”
Hatherly said he’d lacked his usual confidence going into the event – the highest above sea level of all the World Cup races – after a few “silly crashes” during practice.
“My crash in Albstadt was also in the back of my mind and I didn’t want a repeat of that.
“Fortunately it was dry on the day and I got my confidence back after a few laps,” he said.
“Starting in the second row, I worked my way forward to around sixth place by the top of the first climb.
“I then saw that two guys had broken away from my view at the bottom of the ‘wall’ climb. I reacted fast and started my chase to try reel them in before the gap got too big.”
He continued to push and his efforts were rewarded as he started the second lap in third place, 15 seconds behind Andreassen and Martins Blums. An equal gap separated him from the chasing group.
As he grew in confidence, Hatherly was able to make up time and bridged the gap to the leaders with three laps to go.
“I figured out which parts of the course I was able to pull back time on and by lap four I had joined the leaders.
“As the three of us worked together and entered lap five we kind of started sitting up as we were looking to see who would make a move.”
Alan Hatherly achieved his best world cup result when he claimed second place in Andorra this weekend. Photo: Team Spur
Hatherly said this allowed two chasers to catch the leading trio and, with just one lap to go, the front group grew to five riders.
“There were a couple of attacks that went and I knew they were way too hard and too early on the lap, so I sort of just paced myself out and then in the second half of the lap I went super hard.
“We went flat-out through the last tech zone and up the final little climb.”
From there he and Andreassen broke away and entered the final stretch, with the former proving to have the strongest legs.
“Once the two of us had broken away, I knew it would be a difficult sprint finish. There was a small rise which I crested just behind Simon.
“We both gave all we could in the sprint to the line but the gap between us stayed the same,” said Hatherly.
Blums finished 11 seconds down to complete the podium.
