Charlie Hatton claimed a memorable gold medal at the UCI Cycling World Championships, winning the men’s mountain bike downhill in wet and treacherous conditions in Fort William.
Although many of his rivals came to grief on the technical and increasingly slippery course, Hatton stayed upright to become the fifth British rider to win the world title.
“I know Fort William rides really good in the wet,” Hatton said. “I just attacked the same as yesterday. I had some people in the woods who said the mud was very thin, so there was still grip. I just did all my lines and had a really good run.”
In the junior women’s road race, Cat Ferguson from Skipton was left frustrated after taking the silver medal, behind the lone breakaway Julie Bégo of France.
Ferguson, winner of the junior Tour of Flanders, led home the pursuing group, shaking her head in dismay after the chase had been stymied by the reluctance of others to assist and also by canny tactics from Bégo’s French teammates.
“Second place is amazing, but I came here for the jersey,” Ferguson said. “I did come through and tried to encourage the other nations with numbers,” she added. “But unfortunately, GB was the only team trying to chase and unfortunately, it didn’t work.
“I’ve had a good season this year,” she said. “I came in with no expectations but I’d realised that I was capable of winning. GB definitely came in with a plan to win, whether that was me or one of my teammates, so it is gutting, especially in front of a home crowd.”
Later in the day, in the junior men’s road race, 16-year-old Albert Philipsen of Denmark broke clear to claim the gold medal on the central Glasgow circuit. His prodigious success, which follows recent junior world title wins by riders such as Remco Evenepoel of Belgium and Mathieu van der Poel of Holland, will have been noted by the world’s top professional teams.
Evenepoel, the world champion and hottest talent on the men’s World Tour, will be the focal point of Sunday’s 271km men’s road race, particularly as he seems closer than ever to leaving his current sponsor, Soudal Quick-Step.
The 23-year-old has long been linked with a move to the British team Ineos Grenadiers, among others, and speculation that the Vuelta a España champion will soon be on the move intensified after his father, also his agent, refused to guarantee he would not be with a new team in 2024.
“Remco wants to stay on the condition that everything is done so that he can be competitive next summer at the Tour [de France],” Patrick Evenepoel said. “However, to hope to fight with [Jonas] Vingegaard and [Tadej] Pogacar, the team must not take one step forward, but four or five.”
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Only a few days ago, the rider himself had described rumours of a move to Ineos Grenadiers as “small bullshit”.
Evenepoel’s Soudal Quick-Step team manager, Patrick Lefevere, responded: “The consequences of a possible departure are incalculable, for him and for us. I wouldn’t like to be in his shoes. If you don’t respect your contract, you get sued.”
While Evenepoel will start as one of the favourites for the world champion’s rainbow jersey, he will also have to manage the tactical nuances of his own high-powered Belgian national team.
Wout van Aert, multiple winner of the World Cyclo Cross title and stages in the Tour, and Jasper Philipsen, winner of four stages in July’s Tour and currently the quickest sprinter in the peloton, are among his teammates.
The Glasgow city centre course has come in for some criticism from the men’s peloton with the France coach, Thomas Voeckler, and his riders, deriding the multiple corners on the finishing circuit. “I don’t like the course,” Voeckler said. “I don’t think it’s a world championship course. It’s a Criterium course when we’re at the world championships.”
