{"id":17715,"date":"2016-08-19T12:50:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T11:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2016\/08\/19\/sas-mtb-olympians-gear-up-for-exciting-racing-r5432\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T07:47:03","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T07:47:03","slug":"sas-mtb-olympians-gear-up-for-exciting-racing-r5432","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/sas-mtb-olympians-gear-up-for-exciting-racing-r5432\/","title":{"rendered":"SA\u2019s MTB Olympians gear up for exciting racing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South African cycling representatives James Reid and Alan Hatherly are currently testing out the Mountain Bike Cross-country course in the final days ahead of their race at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Sunday 21 August.<\/p>\n<p>Reid, the two-time SA National Cross-country Champion, has also claimed two Elite Men\u2019s Marathon National Championship titles in 2013 and 2014. The 24-year-old Stellenbosch local also placed 10th at the u23 World Championships in Norway in 2014.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-33832300-1471611081.jpg\" data-fileid=\"785011\" data-fileext=\"jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"785011\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-62657-0-33832300-1471611081.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-33832300-1471611081.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/a><span class=\"italic text-sm text-slate-500 block mt-1 mb-4\">James Reid after winning the SA National Cross-country Championship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m feeling quite good, its good to be here time-wise so that the jetlag is over,\u201d said Reid. \u201cI\u2019m settled in and the team is quite organised. It\u2019s really kind of no holds barred here. Everyone does everything and it really does feel like your country has your back, it truly is something,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Reid described his experience so far as a sensory overload: \u201cI\u2019m still mind blown by the magnitude, intensity and diversity of the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also spoke about how the swapping of lapel pins has been a huge icebreaker, encouraging the athletes to meet others from all walks of life. \u201cOurs went up in value significantly after the other night\u2019s 400-metre win by Wayde van Niekerk, which left us all with a hearty shot of inspiration and cheering as a nation for our first gold rush,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Finally feeling adjusted to the heat, Reid concluded by saying that he is looking forward to what the track has in store for the mountain bike riders come Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Alan Hatherly is the u23 Men\u2019s African Continental Cross-country Champion, and the 2014 African Youth Games Gold Medallist, who has impressed not only the u23 category, but also the Elite Men\u2019s scene at a provincial and national level.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-64546200-1471610932.jpeg\" data-fileid=\"785010\" data-fileext=\"jpeg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"785010\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-62657-0-64546200-1471610932.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-64546200-1471610932.jpeg\" title=\"\"><\/a><span class=\"italic text-sm text-slate-500 block mt-1 mb-4\">Alan Hatherly. Photo credit: Tyron Mackenzie | www.tcmphotography.co.za<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Hatherly mentioned that although very tired upon arrival on Saturday, the two mountain bikers were still able to absorb how \u201cmassive&#8221; the Olympic experience was.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe food hall itself is about 500 metres long with basically anything you want to eat. To have that option for 12000 athletes is just incredible,\u201d he said. &#8220;Everything here is crazy-thought-out and super easy to get hold of. There are busses for us to get all over Rio and watch all the events,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>He has been positively overwhelmed by his experience so far: \u201cWe get given passes that allow us access to pretty much everything, including massages and any food hall. I\u2019m still trying to take it all in and actually realise how big this really is. We managed to get out onto the course on Wednesday, which was massive.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about the Rio 2016 Men\u2019s Cross-country course, Hatherly said: \u201cThe course is incredible and super well structured. It\u2019s a lot more man-made compared to the courses we race but it works really well. We did some laps and got a feel for it and it\u2019s really tough but I think the major factor for the race is going to be the heat on the day. We are off to the course again today to do some final checks. I\u2019m looking forward to the race on Sunday and I\u2019m feeling really good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Cross-country specialists will tackle laps of a 4.85-kilometre track at Deodoro Olympic Park on Sunday 21 August at 12:30 (local time) \/ 17:30 (SA time).<\/p>\n<div class=\"bg-slate-100 p-5\">\n<strong>You can watch the 2016 Rio Olympic Games Men\u2019s XCO MTB on Sunday 21 August from 17:25 on SuperSport 6.<\/strong>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South African cycling representatives James Reid and Alan Hatherly are currently testing out the Mountain Bike Cross-country course in the final days ahead of their race at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Sunday 21 August. Reid, the two-time SA National Cross-country Champion, has also claimed two Elite Men\u2019s Marathon National [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":40731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[134,2157,1428],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-17715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-alan-hatherly","tag-james-reid","tag-rio-olympics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17715"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=17715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}