After a five-week break, the 2025 UCI XCO World Cup Series fires up again this week for Round 3 in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic and South Africa’s World Champion Alan Hatherly will join fellow South African World No. 1, Candice Lill, in the action. Here’s what we can expect this week.
By Sean Badenhorst
Despite only doing one XCO race this year, Hatherly is still the UCI’s No. 1-ranked male, thanks to an impressive 2024 season. Compatriot, Lill, meanwhile enjoys her eighth week as the women’s World No. 1-ranked XCO racer – a remarkable achievement for them and for South Africa.
How will they fare at Nove Mesto?
Hatherly has primarily done road racing for the Jayco Alula team this year. He competed in a German Bundesliga XCO race last weekend, where he finished fifth following a crash while in the lead group. No doubt a good reminder of the differences between XCO racing and racing. Fifth against a strong field and just less than two minutes off the winner, Luca Schwarzbauer. Not bad for his first XCO race in more than six months. He will no doubt use the practice sessions and the XCC race this week to continue fine-tuning his primary discipline.
Hatherly’s Nove Mesto record over the past five years:
| XCO | XCC | |
| 2024 | 9th | 6th |
| 2023 | 10th | 33rd |
| 2022 | 5th | 11th |
| 2021 | 6th | 11th |
| 2020 #2 | 5th | 13th |
| 2020 #1 | 6th | 6th |
By his standards, Nove Mesto hasn’t really been a course where Hatherly has excelled before. Twice fifth in the XCO and twice sixth in the XCC are his best finishes there. Will that change this week?
The reigning World Champion is up against a super confident Specialized Factory Racing quartet – Blevins, Koretzky, Vidaurre and Boichis – who dominated Rounds 1 and 2 in Brazil as well as a returning-to-MTB Mathieu van der Poel, a multiple winner at Nove Mesto in 2019 and 2021.
Among others who started the 2025 World Cup Series on a good note, Hatherly’s compatriot, Luke Moir, will also be a man to watch and for South African fans to cheer for. Nineteenth at Round 1 and fifth at Round 2 saw the first-year Elite racer burst into the World Cup spotlight, underlined by a spontaneous, emotional finish-line interview after Round 2.
Following the failure of his planned team to materialise, Moir was forced to choose the path of a Privateer, or as his coach, Barry Austin, prefers to call it, Independent Pro. If he wasn’t too well known before Round 2, he is known now. Should he be in peak form, Moir will surely be hunting a least a top 10 finish in the XCO in Nove Mesto.
Lill admitted the two rounds in Brazil (fifth and 17th) weren’t reflections of her best form and she will undoubtedly tackle Nove Mesto 2025 with a fresh mindset.
It’s worth noting that Lill’s rise to international success essentially began at Nove Mesto in 2024. She was seventh in the XCC and sixth in the XCO – her best results in both disciplines at that time. It was the event that gave her belief in her ability to challenge consistently for podium places.
The course designers have changed the Nove Mesto XCO course since last year. They have shortened it from 4.1km to 3.6km. It still has 120m of ascent per lap and still includes three significant climbs, which should suit Lill.
In the Under-23 division, Tyler Jacobs will tackle her first European World Cup race as a member of the Liv Factory Racing Team. The four-time South African champion finished sixth in both Brazil rounds in the XCO races and will be keen to secure a top-10 finish in a race with more depth this weekend.
The only other South African competing at Nove Mesto is Luca Ruwiel, a privateer racer who will compete in the Men’s Under-23 races. He was 21st and 23rd respectively in the Under-23 XCO rounds in Brazil and will do well to finish in the top 30 in the Czech Republic.
The racing will be broadcast live on the Whoop UCI World Cup’s official broadcast channels.
