Alan Hatherly continued his good run of form after returning from a wrist fracture when he won the third SA Cup Series cross-country race at the Cascades MTB Park in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday.
Hatherly also won the second event at Thaba Trails in Johannesburg over a month ago before he won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games two weeks later.
Alan Hatherly continued his good run of form when he won the third SA Cup Series cross-country race at the Cascades MTB Park in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday. Photo: BOOGS Photography/Andrew Mc Fadden
The Team Spur rider managed to win comfortably on Saturday, beating Arno du Toit into second place by just under five minutes on a course he described as “brutal”.
“The course [in Pietermaritzburg] is always known for its harsh climbing,” Hatherly told In the Bunch. “This time it was exactly as it was in previous years; there was about 180-metres of climbing per lap.
“It was a really brutal course,” he said.
However, Hatherly said the course was perfect for his preparations ahead of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Albstadt, Germany, from May 18 to 20.
“There will be very similar gradient climbs in Germany,” he said. “The only difference is that there will be about 130 riders.”
Hatherly said Stuart Marais, who ended up finishing third, got off to a strong start on Saturday.
“He managed to take the lead in the first lap until the first corner, which was a bottleneck, where I managed to sneak through and led right until the finish.
“On the whole I felt really good. I was trying to chase the feel of having to assimilate world-cup racing.
“I want to use all of these local races as preparation in order to get that intensity back after my injury. Everything is on track.”
The riders behind him, Hatherly said, battled for podium positions.
“Second, third and fourth looked like quite a battle. I saw the track crossed quite a bit and I could gather that they were alternating [positions] a few times.
“They had quite a tactical race in order to fight for the top steps. They are all working towards SA Champs [July 22 to 23],” he said of Du Toit (second), Marais (third) and Henry Liebenberg (fourth) who finished with less than a minute separating them.
“I am looking forward to Europe for now. My body should be even fresher in two weeks’ time and I am excited to see what happens,” Hatherly added.
