‘Cold and shaking’ Charlie Hatton wins mountain bike world gold
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Charlie Hatton mastered the mud to post a time of 4min 26.747sec.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
GLASGOW – British rider Charlie Hatton produced a flying run to win the men’s mountain bike downhill final at the world cycling championships in Fort William on Saturday.
As rain fell in the Scottish Highlands, the 25-year-old mastered the mud to post a time of 4min 26.747sec.
He set a pulsating pace, finishing 0.6sec ahead of Austria’s Andreas Kolb with another Briton Laurie Greenland finishing third.
Defending champion Loic Bruni came in fourth and world No. 1 Loris Vergier could manage only sixth.
“I’m gobsmacked,” Hatton said. “I’m not sure if I’m shaking because I’m cold or I’m nervous or all of the above.”
The world No. 17 has never won a World Cup race, but can now don the rainbow jersey as world champion.
“That was absolutely insane,” said the English rider. “I knew I was riding well this weekend. But I never ever expected the win.”
Austria’s Valentina Holl won her second consecutive women’s mountain bike downhill title ending 2sec faster than any other rider.
Five-time world champion Rachel Atherton, who dislocated her shoulder on Thursday, came in eighth.
The winding downhill track is made up largely of rocks and dirt with jumps and bumps marked out by tape on a barren mountainside at Fort William.
The mentally and technically challenging course of 2.8km drops 550m with a lively crowd welcoming each rider at the finish.
In track cycling, Denmark won the men’s team pursuit title by beating Italy in the final.
Two years to the day after suffering Olympic heartache, Denmark’s Lasse Norman Leth and his team pursuit squad gained some revenge over their Italian tormentors on Saturday.
Leth, together with Niklas Larsen, Rasmus Pedersen and newcomer Carl-Frederik Bevort, delivered a perfect ride in Glasgow to regain the world title Denmark won in 2020 in Berlin.
Victory was especially sweet as it arrived on the anniversary of their loss to a Filippo Ganna-inspired Italy team in a thriller on the boards at Izu in Japan.
Denmark celebrate after winning the men’s elite team pursuit gold medal race against Italy.
PHOTO: REUTERS
In the women’s team pursuit, Britain took gold by defeating New Zealand in the final.
Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker, Josie Knight and Anna Morris came out on top in 4:08.771, more than 4sec ahead of the Kiwis.
In the women’s team pursuit, Britain (above) took gold by defeating New Zealand in the final.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Archibald is a two-time Olympic champion and now has five world championship golds. But few of her triumphs could have meant as much.
A year ago, tragedy struck when her partner, fellow cyclist Rab Wardell, died of a cardiac arrest, while earlier in 2022 Archibald suffered serious injuries after being hit by a car while training, damaging both of her ankles.
“It’s all coming out now, to be honest,” she told fellow British track great Chris Hoy of the emotions she was feeling.
“We have always seen ourselves as the best in the world (in team pursuit) but not been here on the top step since 2014.”
On Sunday, protesters halted the men’s road race for almost an hour, stopping the peloton in its tracks after 80km. A nine-rider breakaway group, which was seven minutes ahead of the main bunch, was approaching the Crow Road climb on the route from Edinburgh to Glasgow, before being stopped.
Environmental group This Is Rigged said on social media that it was behind the demonstration. Scottish police said five protesters have been arrested. AFP, REUTERS
