TOM Pidcock led a British one-two-three today on a bittersweet day in the men's junior race at the UCI Cyclo-Cross World Championships in Bieles, Luxembourg.

The 17-year-old Oldfield Paul Milnes Cycles ERT rider from Otley finished ahead of Dan Tulett (Specialized Racing) and former Paul Milnes rider Ben Turner (HMT with JLT Condor) as Britain claimed a clean sweep of the podium in the race for under-19 riders.

Riders wore black armbands and pointed to them as they crossed the line in tribute to apprentice rider Charlie Craig, who died in his sleep last week aged 15.

The SCOTT Racing rider finished second behind Ben Tulett in the under-16 boys' race at the HSBC National Championships at Bradford's Peel Park three weekends ago.

Pidcock has now won the world title to add to the European crown and national championship that he won earlier this winter, with his British title coming three weekends ago in Bradford's Peel Park.

Fighting back the tears afterwards, he said: “I just made sure I didn’t crash. Just stayed upright and let the legs do the work.

"It’s amazing, all three of us on the podium. It’s history. It’s amazing.”

Pidcock and Turner started well in treacherous conditions as the snow of earlier in the week turned to ice and mud.

Midway through the second lap, Pidcock opened up a significant lead and, despite needing a bike change with two laps remaining, never looked like losing top spot.

Behind him, Turner was holding onto second place as Tulett charged through the positions to reach third, creating the prospect of an unprecedented all-British podium.

Tulett and Turner exchanged falls on the challenging descents before Tulett pulled clear to take silver, with Turner holding onto third place.

The fourth member of the team, Thomas Mein (Derwentside CC) finished 31st.

The performance of the junior men was the perfect tribute to Craig, the Great Britain Cycling Team apprentice rider and 2016 National Trophy Cyclo-Cross Series winner.

The British trio dominated a challenging course in Luxembourg, while there was a fourth medal for Britain on day one as defending under-23 women's champion Evie Richards (100%ME) battled bravely to win bronze.

The rainbow jersey may have marked out Malvern rider Richards as a target.

Richards, alongside Dutch rider Annemarie Worst, came into the race as a major contender, and the two showed why they were heavily fancied by opening up an early lead.

With two laps gone. Richards just pulled away from her rival, but the incredible pace of the race may have proved too much for the 2016 world champion.

USA's Ellen Noble closed the gap on the leading duo and Richards was unable to keep in touch with the American and Worst, who pulled away from the young British rider.

Richards continued to battle, making the difficult conditions look easy at times, to come home in third place after Worst won the battle with Noble to become world champion.

As she crossed the line to pick up bronze, the smile on Richards' face was there for all to see – delight at having won Great Britain Cycling Team's fourth medal of these championships.

Richards said: "It feels amazing. Every time I get on the podium, it's really special so I'm over the moon to get another medal.

"It was really interesting. The course, when I went out this morning, was really slippy and really icy so I was struggling to get round.

"When I came to race, it had really changed, it had got muddier, so I really had to adapt."

Her team-mates Ffion James (Abergavenny Road Club) and former Paul Milnes rider Amira Mellor (Next Wyman) from Holmfirth finished 11th and 31st respectively.

It was a tough act to follow for the three British riders in the elite women's race – particularly given the world class field that included Marianne Vos and Sanne Cant.

The conditions again posed a challenge, with some of the earlier ice giving way to challenging and slippy mud, but national champion Nikki Brammeier (Boels Dolmans Cycling Team) took up the charge for Great Britain in the early exchanges, finding herself in the leading pack on the first lap.

Vos and Cant showed their skills on the course with some breathtaking descents and soon found themselves as the only contenders for the rainbow stripes, with Vos looking stronger ahead of a potential sprint finish.

But Cant, so often unfortunate at World Championships, was not to be beaten again, and found an extra half a yard of pace in the closing stages to get a jump on her Dutch opponent as they entered the finishing straight.

Vos' frustration at failing to spot and combat the move was more than evident on her face as the Belgian Cant finally became world champion.

Brammeier came home in a credible ninth place, particularly on the back of a disrupted season through injury.

Similarly, Helen Wyman, who has missed the vast majority of the season following a crash with Brammeier at the European Championships, was pleased to cross the line in 16th, with Hannah Payton (Team Kinesis UK) 27th.