They’ve both already been multiple World Champions, but for Downhill legend, Greg Minnaar and XCO ace, Alan Hatherly, the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships at Les Gets, France this weekend presents the opportunity to create respective historic career milestones that will help grow both theirs and the South African mountain bike racing legacy.
By Sean Badenhorst
How many mountain bike world champions has South Africa produced? Just three. Burry Stander, Greg Minnaar and Alan Hatherly. Stander won the Under-23 XCO World Championship in 2009, Hatherly won the Under-23 XCO World Championship in 2018 and was the inaugural eBike XCO World Champion in 2017; and Minnaar has been the Downhill Elite World Champion four times – 2003, 2012, 2013 and 2021.
That’s seven world championship titles in total, which really is quite something for a country, far from the European epicentre of mountain bike racing, where cricket, rugby and soccer dominate the culture. And a country where the national cycling federation has never created a youth rider support system, with talented, ambitious riders all having to seek and achieve success on their own.
Minnaar’s incredible fourth World Champs win last year could be considered the perfect bookend to a two-decade-long career. The 40-year-old could have retired and spent his days surfing and playing golf and everyone would have been okay with that. But the Santa Cruz Syndicate stalwart is not done yet and that bodes well for his 26th World Championships participation. That’s right, he’s completed 25 World Championships in succession from 1997 (three as a Junior)…
The last time the World Champs were held at Les Gets, back in 2004, Minnaar secured the silver medal behind Frenchman Fabien Barrel. The last two World Cups he’s raced at Les Gets, in 2019 and 2021, he finished seventh.
What are his chances of a fifth world title? Well, that’s a simple question with a complicated answer. His World Cup season in 2021 was unflattering by his high standards, with 12th, 7th, 4th in the three rounds before the World Championships. In 2022, he has achieved 16th, 7th, 41st (crash) , 3rd, 9th 5th and 30th (crash) so far.
But that most recent World Cup at Mont Sainte Anne, where he hugged a tree after landing a little offline, had him challenging very fiercely for the fastest time against possibly the most competitive field in Downhill racing history… Put it this way, seasoned Minnaar fans will know that the experienced GOAT has as good a shot as any of his hugely talented, younger rivals of securing the gold medal on Sunday.
Can Hatherly regain his momentum?
It’s pretty obvious that Hatherly has enjoyed his best international racing season in 2022. He is currently sixth in the UCI World Rankings, fourth in the XCO World Cup Series rankings and first in the XCC World Cup Series rankings. He’s been so consistent and a joy to watch and he still has one more round of the World Cup Series to go to determine his final 2022 positions in both disciplines.
He’s down to race the XCC and XCO at the World Champs in Les Gets and will hope that the struggle he endured in finishing 17th in the XCO at Mont Sainte Anne a fortnight ago was a small bump in his progress and not a loss of form. It’s more likely the former, but with eight rounds and 16 races, it has been a taxing season and not all riders are able to maintain podium-finishing form for extended periods, especially at that level.
The XCC, which takes place on Friday evening, is a tough one to predict. Hatherly’s lead in the XCC World Cup Series is because of his consistently high finishes, including a first, a second and a third. There are sure to be some riders that are specifically targeting the XCC race without too much concern for the XCO race on Sunday. They’ll take risks and their desire will be immense. Hatherly has shown that he’s got the ability to stay in the front, but positioning, timing and possibly a powerful sprint could be the title deciders and that isn’t always something that can be controlled. We have to back our guy though and say that he’s probably got at least a medal shot…
While the XCC is exciting and growing in value with each World Cup round, the XCO remains the big one to win for any cross-country racer. Hatherly’s runner-up spot in a sprint finish at Lenzerheide was a superb result, but it did come at the misfortune of a clash between Nino Schurter and Mathias Fluckiger in the finale. Since then, he’s finished 25th, 8th and 17th at subsequent World Cup XCO races. As a form indicator, that’s not promising, but there has been two weeks since Mont Sainte Anne and that may have been all the recovery time he has needed to regain peak condition. Besides, desire is difficult to measure and if he’s in the lead group on the final lap on Sunday, it won’t be a surprise to see him at least secure a medal.
Although Red Bull TV is showing the racing live, it’s Geo-blocked in South Africa where Supersport has the rights. So that’s where you can find the racing live on Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday.
Of course Minnaar and Hatherly are just two members of the South African team at the 2022 UCI World Champs. Here’s the full team that was selected:
XCO
Elite Men
Alan Hatherly (also XCC)
Philip Buys (also XCC)
Arno du Toit (opted to not go)
Wessel Botha (opted to not go)
Elite Women
Candice Lill (also XCC)
Mariske Strauss (withdrew due to illness)
Under-23 Men
Tristan Nortje
Johan van Zyl
Luke Moir
Jaedon Terlouw
Keegan Bontekoning (opted to not go)
Under-23 Women
Rimari Sutton
Junior Men
Justin Swanepoel
Massimiliano Ambrosi
Ernest Roets
Jordan Boschoff
Junior Women
Tyler Jacobs
E-XCO (eBike)
Matt Lombardi
DOWNHILL
Elite Men
Greg Minnaar
Johann Potgieter
Stefan Garlicki
Rory Kirk
Christopher Philogene
Theo Erlangsen
Elite Women
Sabine Thies
Fankie du Toit
Junior Men
Keagan Brand
Philip van Schalkwyk
Ike Klaassen
STAFF
Team manager: Erica Green
Assistant manager: Gary Sylvester
Mechanics: Spook Groenewald, Julian Fredericks
SCHEDULE
Here is the full racing schedule:
