"I'm quite proud of my progression": Mountain bike world champion reflects on his first season as a pro on the road

South African Alan Hatherly is one of the world’s top mountain bike racers, having won each of the two most recent cross-country world titles. However, he is still finding his way in road racing with Team Jayco AlUla, having completed his first WorldTour season in 2025. His only professional victory so far came in February this year, when he became South African time trial champion.

Apart from that, it was a year that brought two podium finishes and sixth overall at the AlUla Tour. Later in the season, he placed 11th at the Arctic Race of Norway and 17th at the Tour of Guangxi, where he also helped teammate Paul Double secure overall victory.

Even if they do not seem spectacular results on paper, the 29-year-old impressed quietly, progressing rapidly despite never having raced above .2 or national level before joining the WorldTour. “I think for the most part, I learned a lot,” he told Cyclingnews at the team’s December training camp.

"I made a lot of progress from race to race. If I look at the way I rode in Guangxi compared to the way I rode in AlUla – obviously, they're different categories and races – I'm quite proud of my progression and the difference I made over the season of racing."

Adjusting to the length and fatigue of road racing remains the biggest adaptation, as it is completely differnet to mountain bike. "The ones I struggled with the most were five hours plus. It's just the complete opposite of what I'm used to. That just takes adjusted preparation. And then once the season is going and you realise you have to work on it, it's kind of too late," he explained.

For the next season, Hatherly hopes to fight for victory in some races, especially at the AlUla Tour, and continue winning on the mountain bike. "I'm a competitive rider. Obviously, coming from the mountain bike, where I'm used to having a good shot at winning, that's kind of built into my DNA," he said.

He revealed that his 2026 season will begin again at the AlUla Tour, where he shone last year with two second-place finishes behind Tom Pidcock. He also confirmed he will be at the start of Strade Bianche and Tirreno-Adriatico, with the schedule afterwards to be decided.

The schedule afterwards remains to be decided, with the new World Cup round in South Korea a possible key date. "At the minute, we're trying to finalise a calendar with the mountain bike in mind, working with two different calendars to try and find the best balance. There is a new MTB World Cup in South Korea at the end of April or early May, I believe. We're trying to figure out if that's important for me to be at, or not. So we haven't planned too much further."

Looking long term, Hatherly has set his sights on the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics after taking bronze in Paris. "The long-term goal is to get Olympic Games in LA in 2028, so I think that that's really the objective – just using the road to obviously explore what I can do as well as lift the base level and shape to transition to mountain bike later on, specifically for those Games," he concluded.