Jessica Lambracht immediately cut to the chase about her experience: ”I’m actually sad that this beautiful season is all over now. The race today showed me how awesome Cyclocross is!”

The season’s last race was the World Championships in Tabor, which did not start well at all for the German ’Cross Champion: ”After an awful start due to a lot of riders lying on the course in front of me after a mass crash, I found myself in dead last spot. Until the second lap she had fought herself back to place 18 on the 3.11 km (1.93 mls) course, but a crash and two chain sucks prevented Lambracht from finishing better that place 24 out of 52 participants with 4:08 minutes behind.

Lambracht said: ”I was surprised that I got along very well with the ruts covered in slippery mud. It was a lot of fun!” Her team mate Lisa Heckmann was also hindered by the mass crash and finished in 29th place. The race on a slippery course – the ground was frozen and due to sleet a thin layer of mud had built up in the ruts along the track – was marked by a lot of crashes.

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is new ’Cross World Champion. The French rider who is also reigning Road World Champion, was able to out-sprint World Cup Series winner and European Champion Sanne Cant from Belgium. In the last quarter of the race the two of them had fought head to head while constantly alternating in the lead.

Before that they were able to put a distance between them and a strong chasing field that included all other favourites like Marianne Vos, Nikki Harris (Great Britain), Katerina Nash (Czech Republic) and Lucie Chainel-Lefevre, who had been going a high speed in the beginning of the race. In the three-way fight for the Bronze Medal, it was Vos’ class and expertise, which eventually made her succeed over Harris. Czech Katerina Nash crashed twice during the final lap and eventually rode to 5th place.