Tom Pidcock led a British clean sweep in the junior men’s race at the 2017 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships to become world champion for the first time in his career.

His teammates Daniel Tulett and Ben Turner took silver and bronze respectively as the British trio dominated a challenging course in Luxembourg.

Defending under-23 women's champion Evie Richards battled bravely to win bronze, and reach the world championships podium for the second year in a row.

British 1-2-3

It means Pidcock has now added rainbow stripes to his British and European titles and the significance of his win left him fighting back tears after the race.

“I just made sure I didn’t crash. Just stayed upright and let the legs do the work. It’s amazing, all three of us on the podium. It’s history. It’s amazing.”

Pidcock and Turner started well in treacherous conditions on the course at Bieles, as the snow of earlier in the week turned to ice and mud.

Midway through the second lap, Pidcock opened up a significant lead and despite needing a bike change with two laps remaining, never looked like losing top spot.

Behind him, Turner was holding onto second place as Dan Tulett charged through the positions to reach third, creating the prospect of an unprecedented all-British podium.

Tulett and Turner exchanged falls on the challenging descents before Tulett pulled clear to take silver, with Ben Turner holding onto third place. The fourth member of the team, Thomas Mein, finished 31st.

The performance of the junior men was the perfect tribute to Charlie Craig, the Great Britain Cycling Team apprentice rider and 2016 National Trophy Cyclo-cross Series winner, who sadly passed away last week.

Riders wore black armbands and pointed to them as they crossed the line on a hugely emotional day for the team.

All smiles for Evie

Evie Richards had number one on her jersey as defending champion and that may have marked the Malvern rider out as a target in this race.

Richards, alongside Dutch rider Annemarie Worst, came into the race as a major contender and the two showed why they were heavily fancied by opening up an early lead.

With two laps gone. Richards just pulled away from her rival, but the incredible pace of the race may have proved too much for the 2016 world champion.

USA's Ellen Noble closed the gap on the leading duo and Richards was unable to keep in touch with the American and Worst, who pulled away from the young British rider.

Richards continued to battle, making the difficult conditions look easy at times, to come home in third place after Worst won the battle with Noble to become world champion.

As she crossed the line to pick up bronze, the smile on Richards' face was there for all to see - delight at having won Great Britain Cycling Team's fourth medal of these championships.

Richards said: "It feels amazing. Every time I get on the podium, it's really special so I'm over the moon to get another medal.

"It was really interesting. The course, when I went out this morning, was really slippy and really icy so I was struggling to get round. When I came to race, it had really changed, it had got muddier, so I really had to adapt."

Her teammates Ffion James and Amira Mellor finished 11th and 31st respectively.

Elite women

It was a tough act to follow for the three British riders in the elite women's race - particularly given the world class field that included Marianne Vos and Sanne Cant.

The conditions again posed a challenge with some of the earlier ice giving way to challenging and slippy mud, but Nikki Brammeier took up the charge for the Great Britain Cycling Team in the early exchanges, finding herselves in the leading pack on the first lap.

Vos and Cant showed their skills on the course with some breath-taking descents and soon found themselves as the only contenders for the rainbow stripes, with Vos looking stronger ahead of a potential sprint finish.

But Cant, so often unfortunate at world championships, was not to be beaten again, and found an extra half a yard of pace in the closing stages to get a jump on her Dutch opponent as they entered the finish straight - Vos' frustration at failing to spot and combat the move more than evident on her face as the Belgian Cant finally became world champion.

Brammeier came home in a credible ninth place, particularly on the back of a disrupted season through injury. Similarly, Helen Wyman, who has missed the vast majority of the season following a crash with Brammeier at the European championships, was pleased to cross the line in 16th, with Hannah Payton 27th.

Gallery

Results

Junior men

Under-23 women

Elite women