Rachel Atherton continued her dominance of the downhill mountain bike season with a win at the National Champs in Llangollen on Sunday.

The leader of the UCI World Cup, Atherton finished her run five seconds ahead of 2014 World Champ Manon Carpenter and seven seconds faster than Katy Curd.

It was Atherton’s fourth consecutive victory in the National Championship, and she said: “I’m stoked!! What an amazing weekend, the track was really good fun, and I’m well chuffed to win for the fourth time on the run, great that there are so many family and friends here today and I’m so proud to be representing Great Britain by getting to wear the GB sleeve for the rest of the season at World Cups.”

She was slightly put off when a pony wondered onto the track, delaying the start of her run, but obviously the incident only encouraged her to push harder.

Twenty-two year old Carpenter posted on Instagram that her position was “still not quite what I was after but it’s okay.” She’s had a tough run in the World Championships, but did enjoy victory at round five of the National MTB series.

The dusty run in Wales wasn’t a favourite with Tahnee Seagrave, who qualified in second but crashed in the final, coming fourth in the end.

Over in Hadleigh Park, Essex, the cross country riders battled for the National Champion title – which eventually went to Annie last, defending her 2014 position.

The Liv Cycling rider finished five minutes ahead of nearest rider, Alice Barnes (Betch.NL), who was competing in the under 23 category. In third was Hope Factory Racing’s Annie Simpson.

Last told British Cycling reporters: “I’ve made a few changes recently to my riding, early season wasn’t as quick as I would have liked but I think I’ve started to come through now so I’m looking forward to the second half of the season. I’m loving my riding again and I think it shows in the results.”