It was Ferrand-Prévot's third world title in less than a month as she backed up her cross-country and short-track golds at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships on home soil in Les Gets to secure the marathon crown in Haderslev.

Ferrand-Prévot did not have it all her own way on the challenging 87.5-kilometres Danish course as Switzerland's Jolanda Neff and Britain’s Annie Last also jostled for top spot.

But the 30-year-old has got into a winning habit and used all her tactical nous to ensure she emerged victorious again.

Ferrand-Prévot outsprinted her rivals to cross the finish line in a winning time of 3hr 36min 58sec to complete a stunning hat-trick.

"This is my third world title in one month which is amazing so I am super happy to take the win today," Ferrand-Prévot told insidethegames.

"I think I chose a good time to be in good shape and I felt strong again today.

"It was not easy as it was quite flat but I knew that I am quite good at the sprint.

"At the end Jolanda and Annie played a bit of games and I had to chase but I got back in a good moment and I could win the sprint.

"I had to be smart and use a bit of tactics, so I had a lot of thinking to do in the race about what I will do and how I will do it so it was just amazing to win here today."

Last came second, with Neff two seconds back in third, while Danish duo Sofie Heby Pedersen and Caroline Bohe completed the top five after finishing in 3:37.12 and 3:39:42 respectively.

"This was my first marathon world championships so I didn't know what to expect but I really enjoyed it," said Last.

"Jolanda was the strongest on the technical side and got a gap coming into the finish but Pauline came around and the sprint is longer than you think it is.

"I got around Jolanda but couldn’t get up to Pauline, but I am super happy as it is the first time I have been at the front of a race like this for a long time."

The 120km men’s race was just as engrossing as Gaze managed to see off the challenge of defending champion Andreas Seewald of Germany to take the title.

The male riders did three laps of the route that featured a technical, energy-sapping hilly section in Hammelev as well as the single-track trail at Pamhule Forest and the gravelly terrain by Hindemade Lake.

Gaze was sitting in fifth place at the end of the second lap with the German trio of Simon Stiebjahn, Lukas Baum and Sascha Weber setting the pace.

The New Zealander timed his race to perfection as he climbed his way to the top before battling past Seewald to secure gold in 4:16:51.

Seewald had to settle for silver in 4:17:07, while Denmark’s Simon Andreassen bagged bronze in 4:17:48.

Gaze’s marathon triumph comes after his cross-country title at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and short-track gold at last month’s UCI Mountain Bike World Championships where he also sustained a bad shoulder injury in the cross-country race.

"It wasn’t the most ideal preparation with broken collarbone and ribs," Gaze told insidethegames.

"I just wanted to come here and right some wrongs from [the cross-country race in Les Gets].

"Andreas was super strong.

"He came back at me and I thought I was in really big trouble so it is a dream come true to become world champion again.

"[The shoulder] is pretty sore.

"Luckily my physio has done an amazing job.

"I just tried to mediate the pain as much as possible.

"It is going to take some time to digest this win."