Hatherly, Keller claim U23 World titles

U23 Women

Host nation Switzerland took their third title in three days at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships on Friday in Lenzerheide. Swiss teammates Alessandra Keller and Sina Frei finished 1-2 before a cheering crowd.

Switzerland was favoured for the women's race and they did not disappoint, with defending champion Frei and Keller riding away from the rest of the field on the first lap. The pair rode together until the third lap when Keller attacked, opening a 38 second gap by the end of the lap and extending it to 1:22 by the finish.  Frei rode the rest of the race in second, holding off a late effort by Marika Tovo of Italy to make it a 1-2 finish for the Swiss. This is the third gold medal for the host nation in five events contested so far. "

There are no words," said Keller, "the crowd was amazing, cheering for me - it was so loud. It's a big dream to win this title, I was unlucky last year with a crash, and I was sick at Europeans [Championships], so this is a dream come true."

U23 Men

South Africa became the third nation at the 2018 Mountain Bike World Championships to win a rainbow jersey in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, with a dominating performance by Alan Hatherly, last year's silver medalist.  Hatherly follows in the footsteps of the late Burry Stander, who became South Africa's first XCO world champion as a U23 rider in 2009.

The men's race saw a group of ten form at the front on the first lap, including Hatherly, World Cup champion Petter Fagerhaug (Norway), Christopher Blevins (USA) and David Nordemann (Netherlands). Hatherly was the most aggressive, and by the third lap only Blevins was still with him. The pair rode together for the remainder of the race, with Hatherly finally dropping Blevins in the last half lap to solo in for the win, 27 seconds ahead of the American. Nordemann took third.

"I had a taste of victory at Mont-Ste-Anne [World Cup] about a month ago," said Hatherly, "and since then I've just been preparing. I knew the possibility of winning was quite good, so it was a matter of making sure the final preparations were perfect. It's pretty unbelievable; these aren't the sort of conditions we get in South Africa, and at altitude where I normally struggle. A dream come true. I knew Chris has a pretty good kick from his road racing, so the last thing I wanted was for it to come down to a sprint. So on the last lap I just wound it up and kept my head down the whole way."

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