Loic Bruni and Rachel Atherton are the 2015 mountain biking world champions after a day packed with crazy crashes and drama at every turn in Vallnord, Andorra.

The Frenchman was the third last man down the mountain, coming down shortly after the record-breaking Greg Minnaar had seemingly stuck an unbeatable time of 4:21.950.

Before Minnaar, Englishman Mike Jones had been sat in the hotseat for some time, having set a more than commendable time of 4:26.178, including a bonkers bottom section that wouldn’t be beaten throughout the day.

Jones would end up being booted off the podium though, with Minnaar initially beating him into first, Josh “Ratboy” Bryceland beating him into second, and Loic Bruni then punting everyone down a notch with a 4:19.585 run that will have left most watchers looking on in utter bewildering, spewing at the fact that they’ll never be able to do exactly that.

Despite being the quickest qualifier numerous times this season, Bruni has never actually won at senior world cup level before, so to win for the first time on the biggest stage is something that needless to say, he won’t be forgetting in a hurry.

That said, judging by the fact that Bruni was swigging from a large bottle of whisky about 60 seconds after his win was confirmed though, there is a good chance that tomorrow morning, he won’t be remembering anything from the night before at all.

Out of the numerous gnarly crashes throughout the day, the biggest names to go down included Sam Hill, Gee Atherton and many people’s number one choice for the title, Aaron Gwin.

In the women’s meanwhile, Rachel Atherton reclaimed the striped jersey from 2014 champ Manon Carpenter, who came in second place. It’s no surprise given that Rachel has absolutely dominated this year, winning the overall rankings before the final race and now wrapping the year up in perfect style.

That’s another year done and dusted. It’s been a wild ride, so we’re off to celebrate by heading up the hills and trying to pretend we’re Loic Bruni. We’ll probably end up in hospital, so be nice and send us some flowers.

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