Mitterwallner, who won the cross-country marathon at the Cycling World Championships earlier this year, continued her stunning form in France.

The 21-year-old claimed the women's elite cross-country gold medal for the second time running after registering a time of 1hour 14min 51sec.

It meant that she beat European champion Puck Pieterse of The Netherlands to close the gap between the two in the season standings.

Despite that, Pieterse has a healthy lead as she currently sits on 1,546 points to Mitterwallner's 1,225.

Pieterse exploded out of the gate but was unable to sustain the pace as she was eventually caught by the Austrian in a thrilling chase.

"Puck just went and I was just like 'oh she wants to get rid of me'," Mitterwallner said.

"But not today.

"I can't really put into words how happy I am and how proud I am because I felt great in the short track on Friday but after the short track my stomach was cramping."

Mitterwallner claimed that she could not eat properly but was relieved to have managed a pre-race breakfast and still able to perform.

The 11-time world gold medallist Pauline Ferrand-Prévot made up the podium in what was the sixth leg of the season with a time of 1:16:05.

Ferrand-Prévot also occupies third place overall with 1,157 points to her name.

Her compatriot Koretzky clinched his first title of the season ahead of Rio 2016 Olympic champion Nino Schurter of Switzerland in the men's cross-country.

He finished 17 seconds clear of Schurter, who also has Olympic silver and bronze medals, while Romanian Vlad Dascalu was then worthy of third place in 1:27:06.

"It was a good ride but unfortunately then I had a flat and had to catch back," said Schurter, as reported by CyclingNews.

"I was happy with the second place but I had to dig deep.

"I still didn't feel so good with breathing from my sickness last week so I had to dig really deep."

The Mountain Bike World Cup is set to return from September 27 to October 1 at Snowshoe in the United States.