Alan Hatherly secured South Africa’s second medal at the Olympic Games in Paris after coming third in the men’s cross country mountain bike race.
Hatherly picked up the bronze medal in the 35.2km race, finishing behind winner Tom Pidcock of Great Britain and silver medalist Victor Koretzky from France.Team South Africa now has two medals on the board after the men’s rugby sevens team also picked up a bronze medal on Saturday. Hatherly was on the coattails of the leaders going into the home stretch and crossed the finish line in a time of 1:26:33.
He became the first South African cyclist to achieve a medal in mountain bike racing. Defending champion Pidcock’s race was in danger of unravelling when he suffered a flat front tyre on the fourth of eight laps, shortly after he had taken control of the 35km race with an attack which split the pack.
Having fallen 40 seconds behind Koretzky, Pidcock fought his way back to reclaim the lead with a lap and a half to go, but the pair traded blows in the last couple of kilometres â- dramatically touching wheels â- before Pidcock burst forward to take the win. Pidcock was booed by the home crowds at Elancourt Hill, who had been ecstatic when Koretzky had attacked on the final climb of the race â- the sort of territory where Pidcock would be expected to make a move â- to take the lead late on.
But their hearts would be broken after Pidcock got his nose in front of Koretzky as the path narrowed before a tree, the decisive moment in a tense race.After a relatively poor start, Pidcock had moved to the front on the third lap and then took control, only for things to unravel with a front flat tyre.
Pidcock was lucky in that it happened close to the pits but his team were not ready for him and it was a slow change, leading Pidcock down in ninth place, the gap to the front suddenly ballooning. He caught back up to catch Koretzky with two laps to go, but the effort told as he could not shake off the Frenchman until the very last.
Story credit: SABC Sport
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