Dutchwoman Puck Pieterse put on a dominant display to win the rainbow bands in the Elite Women’s cross-country mountain bike world championship race, while South African Alan Hatherly gained a lead on the last lap of the Elite Men’s race to secure his first rainbow bands as an Elite.

It’s been a full-on week of racing in Andorra, with Evie Richards and Victor Koretsky taking the gold in the XC short track race on Friday. Richards managed to outsprint reigning Olympic champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, and Koretsky beat Brit Charlie Aldridge and South Africa’s Alan Hatherly to the line. Fast forward to Sunday, and the XCO races were shortened and brought forward due to impending storms in the area. The women’s U23 race was also combined into the Elite race, taking place over 5 instead of 6 laps.

However, that didn’t dampen the racing, with plenty of action across both the Elite Men’s and Women’s races. Here’s how it went down.

Puck leads the pack with Lill hot on her heels. Photo credit: Javier Martínez/SWpix.com

How it happened

Elite Women’s Race

Puck Pieterse attacked from the gun, a woman on a mission after her Olympic disappointment. It looked like having some racing in the legs played in her favour – as she also took part in the Tour de France Femmes road race in between the Olympics and this week. She never looked to be in doubt to win this race, with a dominant display from the front of the race – her lead eventually extending to just under a minute.

Evie Richards suffered a crash on the first lap on a technical rock section, but worked well to get back up quickly and make her way through the field to finish a credible 6th place. It’s been a solid week for the Brit, with her winning the rainbow bans in the short track race on Friday evening, demonstrating her return to form after an earlier season crash and concussion.

Candice Lill of South Africa held onto second for a good portion of the race, until she crashed entering the pits on the fourth lap, twisting her bars and requiring mechanical assistance. This allowed the gap to leader Pieterse to extend, a gap which was never brought back.

Behind Pieterse, the fight for silver and bronze heated up with fellow Dutch rider Anne Terpstra capitalising on Lill’s crash and taking over second place. Lill hung on as best she could, but on the final lap Italian rider Martina Berta caught her wheel and the two battled it out for third, with Berta coming out on top.

Perhaps the biggest shock of the race was reigning champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s lack of dominance. This was her last MTB world championships as from next year she will be focusing on returning to the road. But, one could argue that she has nothing left to prove, because, let’s face it – she is one of if not the best female cross-country rider of all time.

Women’s XC racing is on the up and up, and we can’t wait to watch the latter half of the world cup season with the leader’s title still to play for.

Final results:

1st – Puck Pieterse (Netherlands)

2nd – Anne Terpstra (Netherlands)

3rd – Martina Berta (Italy)

GB riders:

Evie Richards – 6th

Isla Short – 36th

Annie Last – 47th

Koretsky leading the short track race on Friday. Photo credit: Javier Martínez/SWpix.com

Elite Men’s race

The men’s race was more of a slow burn into a crescendo of racing rather than flurried with attacks or dominance. Although, Alan Hatherly of South Africa, Victor Koretsky of France and Charlie Aldridge of Great Britain were among the front runners throughout. Any attacks were short-lived until the 4th lap when reigning Olympic champion and last year’s World Champion, Tom Pidcock came to the front. Hatherly, however, sensed the danger of letting the usual Pidcock playbook happen, and took to the front himself. Koretsky followed and the two gained a small lead.

Pidcock and Aldridge worked well together to try and keep the front two in sight, but eventually the pair lost around 14 seconds, switching places throughout the final laps. On the final lap, Hatherly made a move on Koretsky and managed to seal the win by 22 seconds, blocking Koretsky from doing the double and winning both the short-track and Olympic length races.

Pidcock finished in third place, with an excellent Aldridge not far behind. It would be easy to say that the shorter race played into Aldridge’s strengths, but his development this year has been phenomenal, and he looks like he will be contending the Elite wins in the near future.

Final results:

1st – Alan Hatherly (South Africa)

2nd – Victor Koretsky (France)

3rd – Tom Pidcock (Great Britain)

GB riders:

Tom Pidcock – 3rd

Charlie Aldridge – 4th

Cameron Orr – DNF