South African hopeful Alan Hatherly is preparing for a tough challenge at the Commonwealth Games cross-country race, which takes place in Gold Coast tomorrow.
Unlike the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup events the Commonwealth Games will not have age-group categories, meaning the 22-year-old Hatherly will be lining up alongside elite riders.
One notable participant will be New Zealander Sam Gaze, who just two months ago won the elite men’s UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Stellenbosch, beating world champion Nino Schurter to the line.
Gaze narrowly beat Hatherly by 11 seconds at the under-23 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Australia last year.
South African hopeful Alan Hatherly, pictured here riding in Team Spur attire, is preparing for a tough challenge at the Commonwealth Games cross-country race tomorrow. Photo: Craig Kolesky
Besides Gaze, Hatherly identified three other riders who could pose a threat on race day, including 2015 under-23 world champion New Zealand’s Anton Cooper.
“The New Zealand team of Gaze, Cooper and [Ben] Oliver will be very dangerous,” Hatherly said.
“We also have the Australian Dan McConnell who will be on home soil. He’ll be firing without a doubt.
“I reckon it will be the five of us who will be mixing it up at the front out there [tomorrow].”
Oliver finished second in the under-23 race of the Stellenbosch world cup event, where Hatherly was forced to sit out with a wrist injury. McConnell finished third in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games four years ago.
Hatherly said it would be important to create gaps on the course through power and tactics.
“It’s definitely a big-boy course,” he said. “So watts will be flying and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
“I think the race will split up pretty quickly. By the end of lap two the race should be decided in terms of who’ll be staying and who is unable to hold the pace.”
Hatherly had his first observation of the course last Friday, where he received some valuable insights ahead of the event tomorrow.
“It allowed us to make sure all my lines were dialled in and that I had the fastest route planned before I hit the track [for a practice] on Saturday,” he said.
“The course has quite a few open sections, but when it gets rocky it can get quite gnarly, which can make it easy to puncture or mess up your bike.
“The track is faster than a typical cross-country world cup track, with an average speed of around 21km/h. It is definitely one of the faster tracks I have been on.”
He said the 4.5km-lap course offered only 100-metres of climbing, meaning it would not be as “punchy” as a typical cross-country course.
“The climbing will be split over two sections,” Hatherly said. “It will be more of a continuous effort with a lot of pedalling.
“I would say that suits me a bit more this time of the year. It [the course] is quite similar to the World Champs course in Cairns [Australia] from last year.”
