The pre-race favourite Alan Hatherly surged away from Tristan Nortje, with 40 kilometres to race in the Momentum Medical Scheme Attakwas Extreme, presented by Biogen, to win the 2025 Hell of the South title; on Saturday, 18 January. The cross-country World Champion’s first outing for Giant Factory Off Road Racing was a resounding success, as was the defence of Samantha Sanders’ 2024 crown. The Efficient Infiniti Insure rider recovered from a lost SRAM AXS battery, in the first 30 kilometres, to win the Queen of the Mountain hotspot prize as well as the women’s race.
Alan Hatherly Dominates to Claim Men’s Title
On a day which was hot, but never oppressively sweltering, the elite men started at a conservative pace. “I think a lot of people are scarred from previous years,” Hatherly laughed when asked about the early kilometres. “It definitely wasn’t as fast, initially, as it has been other times I’ve raced it,” Micheal Foster confirmed.
Tristan Nortje was the first to push the tempo, but his early move was not followed. “I know the rocky descents in Chandelier Game Reserve quite well and wanted to get out in front to ride them safely,” he explained. “After one descent I saw I had a 5-10 second gap and decided to do a 1 minute effort to see if anyone would chase. But when nobody did, I just rode my own pace for 10 kilometres or so until they caught me just before the first water point.”
“After Water Point 1 Alan [Hatherly] upped the pace,” Arno du Toit then noted. “Then I felt something wasn’t quite right with my cleat/pedal and on that rocky climb I had to unclip and couldn’t. I realised I’d lost a cleat bolt and had to ride conservatively to Water Point 2 where Nicol [Carstens, the Insect Science team manager] was able to fix it for me. But I lost quite a lot of time.”
While Du Toit was undergoing running repairs the race raged on. “On the climb into the Attakwaskloof and to the King of the Mountain the pace increased dramatically,” Foster noted. “Daniel [van der Walt] set a good pace on the climb, then near the summit I put in a dig to claim the King of the Mountain prize,” Nortje stated. “I sat up and a good group descended through the kloof together. By Bonniedale there were five of us together, with Wessel [Botha], Marco [Joubert], and Michael [Foster] with Alan [Hatherly] and myself.”
Nortje and Hatherly Break Away
“Tristan [Nortje] and I had been trying to distance Wessel when Tristan attacked on the climb out of Bonniedale,” Hatherly continued. “I was a bit surprised when the others couldn’t go with his move and when Marco and Michael were just about to regain contact I went over the top and only Tristan could follow. We then worked together for about 10 kilometres.”
“On the biggest climb of that section of the route Alan attacked again and I could just about hold him to 30 seconds for a while, but then he began to edge away,” Nortje confessed. Once Hatherly had the lead solo he put his time trialling skills to great use and powered through the remaining 40 kilometres to win the 2025 edition in fine style. “Having not finished in 2022 it’s particularly sweet to win this year,” the victor smiled. “I’ll be starting my road season at the AlUla Tour in 10 days, so this was a great endurance effort for me. It was a hard 5 hours in the saddle! The course is tough, the heat played a role, and the level is really high in South Africa at this time of the year. So while it’s my only mountain bike race until May I’m really happy with how it went.”
Hatherly’s winning time was 4 hours, 50 minutes and 16 seconds. Nortje crossed the finish line in second, 3 minutes and 25 seconds down. Du Toit was third, having recovered from well down after his mechanical. The PYGA Euro Steel duo, of Foster and Jaedon Terlouw rounded out the top five.
Samantha Sanders Defends Women’s Crown
In the women’s race a steady start helped Sanders when she suffered her mechanical. “After that rocky climb I must have clipped a rock up and it knocked my AXS battery out,” Sanders sighed. “Fortunately, my friend Elrika Harmzen-Pretorius, gave me her spare and I was able to chase back and catch the lead group by Water Point 2. Then on the climb to the QOM Hayley [Preen] pushed on and I followed her until she eased off slightly, then I carried on to claim the hotspot prize. At the summit I made the decision to just keep going and if Hayley caught me, she caught me.”
Behind the leading duo Sarah Hill was happy to ride her own race. “I consciously made an effort to stick to my game plan and not go over my limit chasing Hayley and Sam [Sanders]. I just rode the climbs at a bit above threshold and the flats at a bit below tempo. Still, I finished 18 minutes faster than I did last year.”
At the front there was no catching Sanders. For the second year in a row she crossed the finish line, in Pine Creek Resort, first. Her winning time was 6 hours, 8 minutes and 23 seconds; which was 14 minutes quicker than Preen’s and 19 ahead of Hill. Yolande de Villiers and Kelsey van Schoor completed the women’s top five.
Reflecting on her Hell of the South experience Preen stated: “It was tough, but I enjoyed it. It’s a great way to start the season, but I can see why everyone speaks about the race in the reverent tones they do.”
2025 Momentum Medical Scheme Attakwas Extreme, presented by Biogen, Results:
Men’s Results:
- Alan Hatherley, Giant Factory Off Road (4:50:16)
- Tristan Nortje, Imbuko ChemChamp (4:53:41 | +3:25)
- Arno du Toit, Insect Science (4:56:40 | +6:24)
- Michael Foster, PYGA Euro Steel (4:58:14 | +7:58)
- Jaedon Terlouw, PYGA Euro Steel (5:02:38 | +12:22)
Women’s Results:
- Samantha Sanders, Efficient Infiniti Insure (6:08:23)
- Hayley Preen, Honeycomb 226ers (6:22:48 | +14:25)
- Sarah Hill, Efficient Infiniti Insure (6:27:55 | +19:32)
- Yolande de Villiers, Enduroplanet (6:33:37 | +25:14)
- Kelsey van Schoor, Pirtek (6:33:57 | +25:34)
For the full results click here more information and to enter online visit www.atta.co.za.
