Events

Exciting XCO season openers for Team Spur’s Hatherly and Lüthi

· By Press Office · 0 comments

The first cross-country (XCO) round of the 2017 SA MTB Cup Series went down at the Hero Adventure Trails at Rhebokskloof Wine Estate on Saturday, 25 February. The first of four events in the country-wide series boasted one of the most star-studded international fields ever seen at a local XCO race.

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Team Spur’s 20-year-old XCO specialist Alan Hatherly faced stiff competition in the UCI Pro Elite Men’s field, which featured the reigning U23 XCO World Champion, Kiwi Sam Gaze and Danish former Junior Cyclocross and XCO World Champion Simon Andreassen. Not to mention UCI World Cup stalwarts Manual Fumic, Marcel Guerrini, Mathias Flückiger, Nicola Rohrbach, Simon Stiebjhan and Martin Gluth as well as all the top local contenders.

“The start was pretty narrow, tricky and risky,” Alan explains. “I managed to navigate through there safely and got onto the first climb in about fifth,” he says.

According to Alan he got to the first singletrack, well within his limit and realised some of the other guys were already breathing pretty hard.

“I moved up into second there onto Sam (Gaze’s) wheel.” The two went under the start/finish banner together and it was here that Alan put the hammer down and went into the lead. He dictated the racing for the entire second lap and managed to string out the chasing field, but then disaster struck:

“I looked back to see how far Manny (Fumic) was to our group and went off the track and into some sticks. I collected one that went into the derailleur and jammed the gears up,” he says.

“I knew the tech zone was about 500m away, so I didn’t bother stopping and just sprinted up and over the hill – it was dragging badly but it was enough to turn the pedals.” He soldiered into the tech zone where Team Spur mechanic, JP Jacobs managed to quickly diagnose and fix the problem.

“By then I had lost about 20 seconds, so I went out really hard to try catch up to the front group.”

Alan did manage to make contact again, but just as he did Fumic, Flückiger and Rohrbach started attacking each other to try split it up before a powder-dry loose descent on the second part of the course. “That threw me way over the limit after my effort to catch them. So, from there it took a good few laps to regroup, take a few gels and find some energy,” he says.

“I managed to hammer the last two laps again and finish off with fifth place.”

Sam Gaze crossed the line in first place followed by Flückiger and Rorhbach, with Fumic in fourth.

“On the whole I’m really happy with the first cross-country of the year. There is still a lot of work to do, ahead of my first peak in around April/May for Europe. But being the first South African home is really good for the National Series, and I take a lot of confidence from that.”

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Team Spur’s marathon queen, Ariane Lüthi also fired up the sprint legs on Saturday among a strong field of lap-racing specialists, including Swiss compatriot Catherine Stirnemann, Germany’s Helen Grobert, British Champ Annie Last, as well as South African XCO Champion Mariska Strauss and Cherie Redecker. After a brutal start and a few early setbacks Ariane charged home to a respectable fourth place after five laps of the Rhebokskloof circuit.

“The start was really fast,” she picks up the story. “Everyone around me went out really fast and left me behind on the start stretch. I had a good warm-up and tried to sprint as fast as I can. I went as hard as I possibly could off the grid, but Cherie (Redecker) was leading out, Mariska (Strauss) was in there and Cathrine Stirnemann.”

Ariane did manage to make up a few places on the first climb, but by that time the front bunch was away. Into the first technical descent a small hiccup saw her dismount her Specialized S-Works Epic, but she quickly recomposed and started the chase.

“From there I was just playing a catch-up game,” she says. “I did start reeling them in and the longer I rode the better I felt and the more I got into the rhythm, which meant I was smoother through the technical sections.”

“When I got to the support zone I heard the time split and knew I was close to Mariska, which was really motivating and then I managed to catch her there.”

The race was eventually won by Kathrin Stirnemann, followed by Annie Last and Cherie Redecker.

“I will take any position in a cross-country race to gather some points,” Ariane says. “It was good to go flat out and to get back into cross country riding – it’s just a completely different mindset to marathon racing; a different rhythm and speed.”

“My diesel engine got going a little bit late but I take a good session from that.”

Ariane, an ambassador for the popular Spur Schools Mountain Bike League also commented on how encouraging it was to see so many young racers at the event. “Marathon racing is more an ‘old peoples’ game’ and it was just nice to have so many young racers around, and having fun on their bikes. It’s quite inspiring.”

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