The 28-year-old Franch rider claimed a beautiful win in the last Short Track race of the season preceding Hatherly, who took the discipline’s World Cup title. Luca Braidot was a brilliant third ahead of Nino Schurter
Titouan Carod took the Short Track Grand Finale in Val di Sole, as Alan Hatherly conquered the first ever World Cup crown. The Italian stage of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup delivered the Short Track final verdicts on Friday, September 2nd.
Being able to rely on the advantage earned in the previous World Cup rounds, South African Hatherly moved on the attack in lap 1 with a single goal in his mind: outdistancing his rival Filippo Colombo in the early phases of the race to put the overall beyond reach.
Hatherly started at the front and set a frantic pace in the early going and never looking back, with only Titouan Carod being able to keep up with him. Behind them, Colombo tried an acceleration halfway through the race, but it was Luca Braidot who got clear in laps seven with Nino Schurter on his wake.
In the final lap, Carod moved on the attack outdistancing an exhaustedAlan Hatherly. Behind them, Italian Luca Braidot won the third position cutting the gap to 9 seconds, a few ahead of XCO World Champion Nino Schurter, and cutting his gap in the XCO overall World Cup to 130 points – with 250 still available on Sunday.
“After winning in Mont Sainte-Anne one month ago, I really wanted to take another win in the final round of the season. I’m really happy but I want to congratulate Alan too, because he was really strong. I knew he would be riding strong for the overall, so really hats off to him, but I am really happy for myself. I’m now focused on the race on Sunday”
"I’m really proud to be the first XCC overall champion in the history of this sport. The overall takes a lot of consistency and this has been quite challenging to me in many ways. During the race I knew that Filippo Colombo was my biggest threat, so I decided to manage the gap and race to secure the overall win.", admitted Hatherly.
