The 24-year-old Richards caught and then distanced herself from defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot from France early in the race and held on to that lead become the first British rider to win a world title in the discipline.

Richards clocked a time of 1 hour 23min 52sec while the Dutch athlete Anne Terpstra came second and Sina Frei of Switzerland rounded out the podium following a tight battle for bronze on the final lap of the circuit.

Frei earlier this week won the short track world title.

"I can’t believe it, I’m really shocked I didn’t have much confidence going into the race but the race plan was to have confidence," said Richards, per VeloNews.

"I said I’d shine one day… obviously today was my time to shine.

"I didn’t think I’d ever be good enough to win a race like this.

"With COVID, it was really hard but I tried to stay positive.

"The last weeks I trained really hard at home, they were amazing.

"When I’m happy I race really well and I’ve been really happy the last few weeks at home, and I think that shows today."

In the men's division, Schurter led a Swiss one-two after a thrilling final lap to win his ninth world title.

The 35-year-old withheld a searing attack from Mathias Flückiger before edging past his countryman and powering away to score a sprint win.

Frenchman Victor Koretzky came third, escaping the chase pack in the final laps.

Austrians Mona Mitterwallner and Laura Stigger topped the table for the women's under-23 cross-country event while Caroline Bohe of Denmark took bronze.

Meanwhile for the men's under-23 category, Chile's Martin Vidaurre Kossman took victory, with Italy's Juri Zanotti and Swiss Joel Roth completing the podium.