Cross-Country Mountain Bike world champion Alan Hatherly will combine WorldTour road racing with his off-road calendar in 2025 after signing a two-year contract with Jayco AlUla.
The South African enjoyed the best year of his career in 2024, taking the world title in Pal Arinsal after already netting a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, the first medal of any colour for a non-European in the discipline.
Hatherly has limited experience on the road but has shown that he can translate his off-road abilities over to the tarmac with second in the South African national time trial championships this past season behind only Ryan Gibbons (Lidl-Trek).
“I am incredibly excited for this new chapter in my cycling career and very grateful for the opportunity to ride for GreenEDGE Cycling for the next two seasons," said Hatherly in a press release.
"I think now is the perfect moment for me to get out of my comfort zone and develop even further. Moving to a WorldTour road team is of course something totally new for me, it will be a steep learning curve, and I will be learning from the best."
The 28-year-old got to debut his rainbow jersey at the back end of the season and capped off the year with victory in the Mont-Saint Anne XCO race and with it the overall UCI MTB Cross-Country World Cup title.
Hatherly rode for Cannondale Factory Racing in 2024 but with his move to Jayco AlUa, will now transition to the team of the WorldTour squad's bike manufacturer - Giant Factory Racing.
"Of course, Hatherly is the current MTB world champion and will continue to have a focus in this field, thanks to the support from Giant," said team manager Brent Copeland.
"We hope together we can achieve great things in MTB and on the road, he will certainly have a lot of experienced teammates and staff to learn from.”
He'll join the list of multi-discipline riders competing in elite MTB and road competitions in 2025, alongside the likes of Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Samuel Gaze (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) and the Holmgren twins Ava and Isabella (Lidl-Trek).
"Alan has clearly had a breakthrough season in the MTB discipline, and it demonstrates that he has a lot more to give," continued Copeland.
"We are thrilled to be able to work with such a talented rider and believe that our strong support network within the WorldTeam set-up is something that Hatherly will greatly benefit from. He has a lot of talent and clearly a lot of potential and we believe he can go far on the road."
Hatherly is the Australian side's ninth new signing for 2025, with Ben O'Connor,
Koen Bouwman, Jasha Sütterlin, Paul Double, Jelte Krijnsen, Patrick Gamper, Asbjørn Hellemose and Bob Donaldson also incoming, which brings Jayco AlUla's roster up to the maximum number of 30 riders.
