Mountain Bike Magazine Summer 2024/25 | Page 27

DREAM SEASON ( clockwise from top left ): Celebrating his World Cup XCO overall title with the Cannondale Factory Racing team ; gunning solo to the line at Les Gets in July ; racing in the rainbow stripes at Mont-Sainte-Anne for the overall trophy ; a congratulatory hug from Victor Koretzky at World Champs ; and with his wife Jade at the Paris Olympic Games .
PHOTOGRAPHS CANNONDALE FACTORY RACING
You seemed to change strategy by going off the front early rather than trying to hold and chase down gaps later in the races – and it paid off beautifully . What have you done this year that ’ s made the biggest difference in your performance ? What physical and mental training / preparation went into getting you these best-ever results ? To be honest I haven ’ t changed too much . I think with it being an Olympic year a lot more resources and energy went in to our whole team to provide us each with the highest possible chances of performing well . The Cannondale Factory Racing team ( Simon Andreassen , Charlie Aldridge , Phil and myself ) stayed in a prime location in France for three weeks leading up to the Games which made a huge difference for us to be able to fully focus on training at the highest level . Everything went smoothly and we had some great times in our final preparations . Other than that , I am a huge believer that your support system needs to be solid in order to perform at optimal and I am truly lucky to have a wonderful
wife who is willing to put things on hold in her life to be there for me and to support me in any way that she can . Phil is also an incredible coach who sacrifices a lot of his personal time to keep us on the right path and he provides a lot of guidance off the racecourse as well . The entire team have become like a second family , and we are all always willing to chip in and help carry the load and to cheer each other on or be a shoulder to lean on along the way .
You ’ ve been riding the Cannondale Scalpel . Tell us more about your bike … How do you and the mechanics you work with ( such as Saffa JP Jacobs ) pimp up your ride to make it the best weapon for your riding style and the terrain you cover ? Do you mix things up for different courses ? And what key aspects of the bike components and setup , plus mid-race tech support , keeps your weapon in top running order so you can avoid unnecessary mechanicals on course ? Our technical coach Kenta Gallagher rides each course before we do to eye out any changes that may have been made , any
interesting features and line choices , and then relays all of this information back to us . We then usually decide on tyres depending on the soil and weather conditions for the day – considering the weather predictions for race day too . Bike setup typically stays the same for me , apart from tyre choices and pressures . We usually take a couple of spare wheelsets with different tyre options and change during practice laps to find what feels the best on the course ( each rider is different here ). We do short on-course training on race day too and make final choices there – if the weather doesn ’ t do a 180 °. Typically there is only one mechanical tech zone on course during a race so both of our mechanics are fully equipped with spare wheels , seat post , bottle cages , spare shoes , chains plus all of their tools – ready and waiting should any of us need help .
So what ’ s next for Alan ? What are your plans for 2025 and beyond ? I can ’ t speak on this yet – you will have to wait on an official announcement later . As they say , watch this space !
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