Alan Hatherly won yet another local race when he came up trumps in the Western Province XCO Championships at the Bloemendal Wine Estate on Sunday.
Team Spur’s Hatherly, who won the first two SA MTB Cup Series events quite comfortably, had to work hard to beat NAD Pro’s Matt Beers by just one second in a sprint finish. Third finisher Craig Boyes finished a whole eight-and-a-half minutes later.
Alan Hatherly won yet another local race when he came up trumps in the Western Province XCO Championships on Sunday. Photo: Michal Cerveny
Hatherly trained with Beers prior to the race and they planned to stay with each other from the outset.
“Matt and I just kept chasing each other throughout the race. That was the plan, to chase each other up every climb,” Hatherly told In the Bunch.
“So if I was a bit faster on the downhill I would then wait at the bottom so that he was there and we would attack and chase each other to the top of the [next] climb.
“That made the racing a little more fun and both of us were going flat out the whole time.
“We made every climb as hard as possible; we are so equally matched. We do all our training together, so I knew if we were together it would be very hard to get rid of him.
“The intensity was similar to world cup standard; just the race time was shorter.”
Hatherly and Beers went through the course on the morning of the race and he said it was muddy due to it having rained the night before.
“I knew then that the course was going to be super tough,” Hatherly said. “There was a lot of climbing and the descents were quite challenging – more than what I expected for a Western Province Champs.”
On top of winning a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games cross-country race, Hatherly enjoyed his second international podium this season when he finished third in the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, just over a week ago.
“That was one of my best world cup performances so far,” he said. “It was my third big race back after my injury.
“To make it onto the podium that early was quite a relief and a big confidence-booster ahead of the next block.”
He has been happy with the consistency he has shown since returning from injury. “My form has been good and it is a bit difficult to pinpoint any weaknesses at this moment.
“At a race like a world cup you can head in with the best form and it is flat out the whole time, making it hard to say where you are lacking.”
Hatherly will now turn his focus to the next world cup in Val di Sole, Italy, from July 6 to 8.
“I am aiming to get some strength work in now for the next four weeks, to build up the foundation and get many miles in.
“Then I will transition through to some speed work about a week or two before I fly back to Europe again. Hopefully that will give me a little bit more to take that top step.”
