The trio of Gaelle Barlet, Yoann Garde, Baptiste Fuchs clocked a winning time of 2 hours 44min 38sec to finish 00:58 ahead of Russia’s Svetlana Poverina, Valeriy Gluhov and Anton Foliforov in the runners-up spot.

Finland’s Ingrid Stengard, Jussi Laurila, Pekka Niemi were 03:54 behind, beating Austria to the bronze medal.

Barlet established a clear one-and-a-half minute advantage on Poverina, and more than four minutes on the chasing pack, in the first leg.

France further improved their advantage over the Russians on the second leg, with Garde winning another one-and-a-half minutes on Gluhov.

A brilliant performance from Foliforov on the last leg wasn’t enough to annul the Russian’s disadvantage as Fuchs sealed France’s victory.

"Some little mistakes in the beginning put a lot of pressure on me," said Fuchs.

"The last loop was quite difficult but, in the end, we managed to get the victory."

There was also success for France yesterday as Barlet shared the elite women’s middle distance title with Great Britain’s Emily Benham.

Both competitors posted 54:49, while Czech Republic’s Martina Tichovska was third in 55:32.

On Saturday (May 14), Benham edged Barlet in the elite women’s long distance race with her time of 2:03:45 giving her a 01:57 winning margin over her rival.

Like in the middle distance race, Czech Republic had to settle for bronze thanks to Renata Paulickova’s time of 2:08:23.

Foliforov clocked a time of 2:25:18 to finish 02:44 behind Switzerland’s Simon Braendli in the elite men’s long distance race before a time of 55:56 saw him upgrade to gold in the middle distance - exactly one minute ahead of Estonian silver medallist Lauri Malsroos. 

Czech Republic’s Vojtech Ludvik was the long distance bronze medallist in 2:25:55, while Austria’s Andreas Waldmann completed the middle distance podium with a time of 57:03.