The 23-year-old was last week crowned as the women’s marathon mountain bike world champion after a gruelling race in Laussac and will now hope to challenge for the top of the podium again.

Neff already boasts European Games gold and three under-23 world titles to her name but the Swiss rider can be sure to face strong competition from Denmark’s Annika Langvad, who currently tops the UCI World Cup standings.

Two-time world champion Catharine Pendrel of Canada will be another key threat, alongside home favourite Katerina Nash and Norway's Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa.

The women’s cross-country event is scheduled to take place on Saturday (July 2), with the men’s competition held the following day and will bring the Championships to a close.

Defending world champion Nino Schurter of Switzerland can expect to be challenged by France’s Julien Absalon, the five-time winner of the Championships.

The Frenchman will hope to improve on his silver medal from last year’s Championships in Vallnord in Andorra as he steps up preparations to attempt to wrestle back the Olympic title he claimed at both Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.

Jaroslav Kulhavy, the man who ended Absalon’s Olympic reign at London 2012, could prove the best chance of success for the home crowd.

Kulhavy and Schurter have won every edition of the World Cup contested on the course and the two men could go head-to-head again.

Competition, which is being broadcast on the UCI’s Youtube channel here, is due to get underway tomorrow with the cross-country eliminator events.

The team relay is then scheduled to take place on Thursday (June 30) before junior cross-country races come to the fore on Friday (July 1).