'Proud of my progression' – Mountain bike world champion Alan Hatherly prepared for sophomore season of WorldTour road racing

South African Alan Hatherly is one of the world's top racers on the mountain bike, having won each of the two most recent cross-country world titles. However, he's still finding his way in the world of road racing with Jayco-AlUla, having raced his first season at the WorldTour level in 2025.

It was a year that saw him open his account with two podium spots and sixth overall at the season-opening AlUla Tour before claiming the South African national time trial title. Later, he scored 11th and 17th places at the Arctic Race of Norway and Tour of Guangxi, assisting teammate Paul Double to overall victory at the latter.

They're not eye-boggling results, but the 29-year-old quietly impressed, having never previously raced on the road higher than .2 or national level. A year of learning for Hatherly has resulted in progress and pride, he told Cyclingnews at his team's December training camp.

"I think for the most part, I learned a lot," he said. "I made a lot of progress from race to race. If I look at the way I rode in Guangxi compared to the way I rode in AlUla – obviously, they're different categories and races – I'm quite proud of my progression and the difference I made over the season of racing.

"I think it was just needed to find myself this season. I'm just looking forward and building on that now for next season, and I think we adjusted the provisional calendar pretty nicely towards that."

Hatherly is set to begin his 2026 campaign at the AlUla Tour, scene of his strong start last year where he finished second and third on stages behind eventual winner and fellow multi-disciplinarian Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) on the toughest days of the race.

Starts at Strade Bianche and Tirreno-Adriatico will follow, while he'll continue combining road and mountain biking.

So far, the biggest adjustment to the road, beyond the obvious, has been dealing with "the demands, the hardness, and the fatigue resistance" of a totally different style of racing bikes. Hatherly said that dealing with the length of the race days took some getting used to.

"The ones I struggled with the most were five hours plus. It's just the complete opposite of what I'm used to. That just takes adjusted preparation. And then once the season is going and you realise you have to work on it, it's kind of too late," he said.

"So, a lot of important lessons this year I learned in the season. And there wasn't much I could really do about it to make big improvements. So we had a good end-of-season debrief, went back to the drawing board, and I think we have a good plan to tackle this next season."

Hatherly enjoyed the one-day races he took in 2025, which included debuts at Strade Bianche, Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne, and the Donostia San Sebastián Klasikoa. However, the week-long stage races also counted among his high points of the season, races which he may look to do more of in future.

"For the most part, I really enjoyed the one-week tours," he said. "I think mainly because it gave me a lot more opportunity to learn. It wasn't a one-day race where if you get it wrong, it's over.

"With a one-week tour, you always have a chance to try and make it up or not get it wrong in the next days, which is quite nice."

For 2026, the goal is to keep learning and keep competing with, of course, the hope of getting himself on the top step of the podium. The AlUla Tour is an early target for the latter. And the wins should keep on coming on the mountain bike, too, even if his plan for the whole year isn't fully mapped out yet.

"I'm a competitive rider. Obviously, coming from the mountain bike, where I'm used to having a good shot at winning, that's kind of built into my DNA," Hathlerly said.

"So I think especially in AlUla or something like that, where I was pretty close this year, it leaves me hoping and working towards possibly getting a win on the road. I think it's just a matter of opportunity and where the line is to get that win.

"At the minute, we're trying to finalise a calendar with the mountain bike in mind, working with two different calendars to try and find the best balance. There is a new MTB World Cup in South Korea at the end of April or early May, I believe. We're trying to figure out if that's important for me to be at, or not. So we haven't planned too much further."

That mix of disciplines will continue going forward, too. Hatherly has hit a new level on the mountain in recent years, winning his pair of world titles as well as tasting World Cup success in Les Gets, Mont-Sainte-Anne, and Lenzerheide.

He picked up bronze at the Paris Olympics, too, finishing 11 seconds down on gold medallist Pidcock of Great Britain and two seconds off the silver of Frenchman Victor Koretzky. A gold medal of his own in two years is high on his mind.

"I think I'll just keep doing both ideally," Hatherly said of road and mountain bike racing. "I think the World Championships will kind of be a target every season for me.

"The long-term goal is to get Olympic Games in LA in 2028, so I think that that's really the objective – just using the road to obviously explore what I can do as well as lift the base level and shape to transition to mountain bike later on, specifically for those Games."