Pieterse becomes first Dutch woman to win world championship gold, Hatherly triumphs

Puck Pieterse won the women’s elite cross-country Olympic event at the UCI World Championships at Pal Arinsal, Andorra on Sunday, becoming the first Dutch woman to win world championship gold.

Later in the day, South Africa’s Alan Hatherly won the men’s event with Britain’s Tom Pidcock finishing third.

With the weather already cold and cloudy and lightning forecast for the afternoon, the start times were brought forward several hours and both the men’s and women’s races were reduced in length.

Pieterse dominated the race, leading from start to finish.

Fellow countrywoman Anne Terpstra came closest to reeling Pieterse in, eventually finishing 59 seconds behind her in second after having sat 13th at the end of the first lap.

Italy’s Martina Berta made a similar late charge, passing Candice Lill and Loana Lecomte to complete the podium behind the Dutch duo.

Pieterse, 22, took third in last year’s event, losing out to French duo Lecomte and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot.

This time around Lecomte was off the podium, hovering around the top five throughout the race, while Ferrand-Prevot – the pre-race favourite and carrying the number one bib – was nearly another minute further behind. She had burned far too much energy trying to catch Pieterse after an early breakaway.

Pieterse suffered a disappointment at the Paris Olympics, finishing fourth in the mountain bike rice but bounced back with an impressive stage win at the Tour de France Femmes.

Britain’s Evie Richards finished sixth, 1:51 off Pieterse’s winning time.

Frenchman Victor Koretzky got off to a hot start, sitting level with Germany’s Luca Schwarzbauer in the first lap and moving into a sole lead in the second. Britain’s Charlie Aldridge was right on Koretzky’s back wheel, one second behind for most of the second lap before hitting the front.

Just seven seconds divided the five leading riders.

Hatherly pushed into contention in the second lap, while Pidcock also made a move after a slightly slow start. Midway through the third lap, the British champion was 11 seconds behind Aldridge.

Pidcock continued his surge in the third lap, moving up to third and sitting six seconds behind new leader Hatherly. Aldridge had dropped to fifth, 10 seconds off the pace.

Crossing the line at the end of the fourth lap, Hatherly had eked out a one second lead over Koretzky with Aldridge six seconds further behind while Pidcock had dropped off.

The fourth lap saw the leading group cut to four, with Mathis Azzaro dropping off the pace. Koretzky was exactly level with Hatherly, and the British pair sat six and seven seconds back respectively.

The penultimate lap saw the top two locking down their lead over the field. The British duo slipped further behind while the leaders could not be split.

On the hour mark, Koretzky took the lead with Hatherly less than a length behind. Pidcock remained 16 seconds in arrears and Aldridge a further six seconds behind.

In the final lap, Koretzky launched an aggressive climbing attack. Hatherly matched him and then somehow found a reserve of strength and stole into the lead.

Koretzky was struggling as Hatherly stretched his lead to 13 seconds. Pidcock was 34 seconds back and Aldridge almost a minute behind.

It would have required a Herculean effort for Koretzky to drag himself back into contention from there, and he didn’t have the reserves. Hatherly was cruising over 600 metres ahead.

Pumping both hands in the air, Hatherly crossed the line before dismounting and holding his bike aloft.