Rinderknecht has been the perennial favorite at the World Championships for years and has already won the silver medal three times. The accolade now comes at the last moment: Rinderknecht himself described the race in Leogang as his last. The World Championship title is the well-deserved crowning glory of a great career.

In the World Championships race, he confidently made it through all the heats and then faced two Czechs together with compatriot and training partner David Graf. It could have been a great international duel had Graf and the Czech Tomas Slavik not been involved in a crash right at the start. Rinderknecht then confidently defended his lead against Michael Mechura and rode home to an unchallenged victory. "I felt good the whole time here, but I knew everything had to go perfectly," explained the man from Winterthur at the finish.

The rest of the Swiss team did not make it past the last eight

With Lucia Oetjen, the Swiss delegation also had a medal candidate in the women's event. However, she was unexpectedly beaten early on in the semi-finals, but won the small final with aplomb. She finished in a thankless fifth place. On the other hand, Anneke Beerten from the Netherlands was able to assert herself without any problems and live up to her role as favorite. She can thus defend her world championship title from the previous year.

Mountain bike world championships 2012

Four Cross Men
1st Roger Rinderknecht (SUI)
2. Michael Mechura (CZE)
3rd Tomas Slavik (CZE)
4th David Graf (SUI)
5. Michal Prokop (CZE)
6th Lukas Mechura (CZE)
7th Graeme Mudd (AUS)
8. Benedikt Last (GER)
9. Scott Beaumont (GBR)
10th Kamil Tatarkovic (CZE)
19th Mirco Weiss (SUI)
26th Adrian Weiss (SUI)
33rd Simon Waldburger (SUI)

Four Cross Women
1st Anneke Beerten (NED)
2nd Romana Labounkova (CZE)
3rd Céline Gros (FRA)
4th Anita Molcik (AUT)
5th Lucia Oetjen (SUI)

Watch the complete race again:
http://www.redbull.com/en/bike/stories/1331575513967/world-championships-4x-live-on-red-bull-bike