Rachel Atherton has secured her fifth World Championship win at the UCI World championships 2018.
Atherton, from Llanrhaeadr, competed in Lenzerheide in Switzerland to win her fifth title as an elite and bring home the rainbow jersey for another year.
It is a storming finale to her season which also saw her take the World Cup overall, and the day was made better still by a victory for Rachel’s 18-year-old team mate Kade Edwards who took the Junior Men’s title.
The finals day was hot, with the track the driest it had been all week and conditions were "pretty much perfect". Lenzerheide is renowned for being tricky and loose with big drops, huge roots, tree stumps and rock gardens.
Crazy emotions!! 💥🌈💥 I went full commitment, saying to myself I didn’t mind if I broke a bone again because I wanted this win! 🤪 Elite World Champion for the 5th time - felt AMAZING & the crowd was nuts!! pic.twitter.com/TOAO5s8kuZ
— rachel atherton (@rachelatherton) September 10, 2018
In the women's race Myriam Nicole put a qualifications disqualification behind her to take the lead by over five seconds.
Australian Tracey Hannah didn't make any major mistakes but didn't quite get in to contention with Nicole, then Rachel's British team mate Tahnee Seagrave came out flying.
She was 1.2 seconds up by the second split and crossed into the hotseat by just 0.6 seconds.
Luckily Rachel was on form, going three seconds up by split one and six seconds clear by split two. She kept on the attack all the way to the line, crossing 9.98 seconds clear of the field.
"I'm stoked!" said Rachel.
"This was the Worlds run so I knew that I had to throw everything at it, I know it would have to be special.
"All the way down I thought I was going to crash. Tahnee and Pompn have been pushing me so hard all season, I was watching them all weekend thinking "I'm going to have to push on.""
"I'm buzzing!"
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