The Bike Kingdom's 10th World Cup anniversary weekend closed on Sunday with two XCO races that ran on opposite ends of the drama spectrum — one close enough to feel unsettled into the final minutes, one settled from the halfway mark — and a farewell that the entire mountain biking world had been quietly marking on its calendar.
The Men's Race: Solo, Mechanical, and a Lead That Survived
Alan Hatherly made his move on the third of eight laps. The South African — riding for Giant Factory Off-Road Team XC — came off the wheel of the lead group with an acceleration the field couldn't answer and built his gap through the midsection of the race. By mid-race, his advantage had opened beyond one minute.
Then his chain came off on the final lap.
It happened at speed in a section where stopping costs time and remounting costs composure. Hatherly fixed it and resumed — but the gap halved before the finish. Charlie Aldridge (Cannondale Factory Racing) led the chasing group home and arrived 32 seconds behind at the line. Adrien Boichis (Specialized Factory Racing) completed the podium at +0:39. Final time for Hatherly: 1:20:23.
The mechanical made it closer than the race had looked for most of the afternoon. It didn't change the result.
The Women's Race: Keller on Home Soil
Alessandra Keller has been building toward this kind of performance across the season. The Swiss rider — aboard the Thömus Maxon team's bike — won the women's XCO at Lenzerheide in front of the Swiss crowd that came to watch her.
She'd already made history on Friday: third place in the XCC short track put her on the first World Cup podium ever recorded on 32-inch wheels (covered in our Friday XCC report). Sunday's XCO win added another layer. Jenny Rissveds finished 16 seconds behind in second. Savilia Blunk — the XCC winner on Friday — crossed third at +0:25.
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Join ZealZagFollow us on InstagramDHI Finals: Iles and Newkirk on Saturday
The downhill finals ran Saturday before the XCO. Finn Iles won the men's race in 2:46.348, with Amaury Pierron second (+0.482) and Asa Vermette third. Jackson Goldstone — the Leogang winner and series leader coming in — finished fourth at +1.304. Tighter than his Leogang margin had suggested, but enough for him to leave Graubünden still controlling the overall classification.
Anna Newkirk won the women's DH in 3:12.917. Lisa Baumann crossed second (+0.591), Gloria Scarsi third.
Schurter: A Career Compressed Into One Last Lap
The number that defines Sunday at Lenzerheide is not Hatherly's winning time. It is 24th place, +3:27. That's where Nino Schurter finished — in what was his final appearance at a UCI Mountain Bike World Cup.
Schurter won nine UCI overall World Cup titles. He won 10 world championship titles. He accumulated 36 individual World Cup race wins across venues on four continents. He is 39. He came 24th at his home venue in Graubünden, three minutes and twenty-seven seconds behind a rider half his age, in a discipline he spent twenty years defining.
The farewell was apparently planned — "Sunday is all about celebration," by some accounts — and the Swiss crowd at Bike Kingdom delivered accordingly. The 10th anniversary of the Lenzerheide World Cup was a reasonable stage for it.
What the Weekend Built
The points picture from this three-discipline weekend: Goldstone remains positioned at the top of men's DH; Hatherly consolidates in XCO; Rissveds' XCC win plus her XCO second gives her a productive weekend in the classification she's been targeting. For Keller, the home XCO win is the result she came here for.
The series continues through the summer. For context on the Lenzerheide trails that XCO athletes race — and the sections visitors can access — see our Bike Kingdom trail guide and Graubünden MTB destination overview.
