BETH Crumpton couldn’t quite end her fantastic cyclo-cross season on a high as she suffered frustration at the World Championships in Zolder at the weekend.

The Redditch cycling star finished 25th in the under-23s category in Belgium on Sunday.

But she was delighted to see fellow Worcestershire cyclist Evie Richards storm to victory.

Richards decimated the field in challenging conditions, taking the lead from Italy’s Chiara Teocchi at the end of the first lap and going for a long solo bid for victory.

While Crumpton’s cyclo-cross campaign ended in disappointment, overall her time in the discipline has been a huge success.

She took under-23 silver at the National Championships and finished second overall in the Elite Women standings of the National Trophy Series.

She said: “It didn’t go to plan, the course has some very tight turns at the start and I just got pushed out of the way and didn’t have the legs to catch up.

“It was very frustrating personally but it was a fantastic experience being at the World Championships.

“It was great to see Evie Richards become the first British champion since 1992.

“The atmosphere was just amazing as well, there were nearly 70,000 people in Zolder on Sunday and it was just crazy there.”

Now she will take a small break before preparations for the mountain bike season, which begins in March, although she admits the popularity of cyclo-cross in Belgium was informative.

“It was a great experience at the World Championships and it really opened by eyes to cyclo-cross,” said Beth.

“It’s a sport with huge popularity and I’m thinking about cyclo-cross being my main focus instead of mountain bike racing.

“It’s just something I am thinking about at the moment; I start preparations for the mountain bike season in a few weeks’ time.”