Alan Hatherly claims podium in Les Gets World Cup

[News bot]

France’s Loana Lecomte maintained her perfect start to the 2021 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup XCO season with a dominant win in the Elite Women’s race in Les Gets on Sunday, while the Elite Men’s race was won in equally commanding fashion by Swiss rider Mathias Flückiger with South African Alan Hatherly riding to fourth place on the podium.

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[Ispeed_V]

Fantastic result considering the atrocious conditions 

[Robbie Stewart]

Well done to Hatherly. It seems like the era of Schurter's dominance is coming to an end, and I will not at all be surprised if he hangs up his boots at the end of the season unless he walks away with gold at the Olympics. It will be interesting to see who is going to come out tops there. I am thinking that Flueckiger is peaking at the right time, but MvdP is also in contention and after his week one performance at Le Tour it seems he is in a good place to take the gold. Schurter does not look like a likely contender at this point. Maybe we're lucky and Hatherly pulls of a good result to make the medals podium there too.

As for Lecomte, there is no denying her brilliance on the track and she seems likely to be teeing up a perfect season both at the world cup but also for olympic gold. Her post race interviews though...(I still struggle to get those giggles out of my head)...But it was nice to see Jenny Rissveds back in the mix again too and she is looking strong both mentally and physically. She is definitely a medal contender. PFP is not looking strong at the moment though and one hopes she is only preserving herself for the olympics.
 

[nox1111]

Wow, well done Alan!

[DieselnDust]

2 hours ago, Robbie Stewart said:

Well done to Hatherly. It seems like the era of Schurter's dominance is coming to an end, and I will not at all be surprised if he hangs up his boots at the end of the season unless he walks away with gold at the Olympics. It will be interesting to see who is going to come out tops there. I am thinking that Flueckiger is peaking at the right time, but MvdP is also in contention and after his week one performance at Le Tour it seems he is in a good place to take the gold. Schurter does not look like a likely contender at this point. Maybe we're lucky and Hatherly pulls of a good result to make the medals podium there too.

As for Lecomte, there is no denying her brilliance on the track and she seems likely to be teeing up a perfect season both at the world cup but also for olympic gold. Her post race interviews though...(I still struggle to get those giggles out of my head)...But it was nice to see Jenny Rissveds back in the mix again too and she is looking strong both mentally and physically. She is definitely a medal contender. PFP is not looking strong at the moment though and one hopes she is only preserving herself for the olympics.
 

I'm very confident Alan can be on the podium in Tokyo. His trajectory toward the podium shows he is peaking around the right time and I reckon even a WC win by season end. He rode a superbly paced race yesterday. I think he was somewhat hampered by tyre choice. Fluckiger made a good choice with Dirty Dan while Cink's choice was a Hyperion 2.1 I'm told. Not sure hat Alan used but its didn't look like the Dirty Dan that Matthias was using. Could be he used the new Wicked Will

 

Edited July 5, 2021 by DieselnDust

[NickGM]

5 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

I'm very confident Alan can be on the podium in Tokyo. His trajectory toward the podium shows he is peaking around the right time and I reckon even a WC win by season end. He rode a superbly paced race yesterday. I think he was somewhat hampered by tyre choice. Fluckiger made a good choice with Dirty Dan while Cink's choice was a Hyperion 2.1 I'm told. Not sure hat Alan used but its didn't look like the Dirty Dan that Matthias was using. 

 

I really hope so. He's had such an understated but steady rise to (almost) the top. Each year he seems to move up a couple of places on average. 

[Mark James]

Super stoked for Alan's 4th place, and he has been making solid improvements in each race this season, and peaking towards the Olympics. Definitely has a shot at the podium in Tokyo 

My dark horse pick for Tokyo though must be Cink, watch this space! 

Edited July 5, 2021 by Mark James

[DieselnDust]

My dark horse pick for gold in Tokyo is Mathieu van der Poel.

its ok if you never heard of him. He rides all kinds of bikes and was recently spotted in the south of France dressed as a Canary

[babse]

7 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

My dark horse pick for gold in Tokyo is Mathieu van der Poel.

its ok if you never heard of him. He rides all kinds of bikes and was recently spotted in the south of France dressed as a Canary

not that dude that plans to compete in 17 different disciplines?

 

[DieselnDust]

2 minutes ago, babse said:

not that dude that plans to compete in 17 different disciplines?

 

Some say he trains in Crocs

[Robbie Stewart]

 

5 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

Some say he trains in Crocs

I'm pretty sure he goes by the Strava name "Die Muishond"

[OVERDRIVE]

[kosmonooit]

It was a good race with Sarrou. I think Alan is one of our best hopes for a medal in Tokyo

[DieselnDust]

He has been so consistent these last three years. Steadily moving forward.

[TheoG]

Well done Alan!  Also nice to see Nino on the podium again, hopefully he can get back to his best again soon.

[vanniri]

How times changed - two years ago the females was the most unpredictable and thus more exciting. Currently the men makes for the most exciting racing. 

Alan is peaking nicely and must be a medal contender. For obvious reasons he gets my support.

Nino will find it difficult but his ability to fight back is awesome to watch. Personally I would like him to exceed Absalon's record if only to draw a new line in the sand. Both of them are legendary and will take the current crop a few years of consistent performance to beat.