Source: MXGP.

The 2014 FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship has been a nail-biter all season long with the sixth and final round here at the historic circuit of Loket providing just as much pandemonium as the rounds before.

While Team One One Four’s Livia Lancelot won the battle this weekend, rounding off her season on top of the box, it was Yamaha MXFonta Racing’s Kiara Fontanesi who won the war claiming her third consecutive FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship gold plate.

Leading the way by a miniscule four points into race one yesterday Fontanesi came out all guns blazing. Not even a bad start could slow down the defending champion as she went on to dominate the penultimate race of the season ahead of arch rival Bud Racing Kawasaki’s Meghan Rutledge and Team One One Four’s Livia Lancelot.

In race two this morning, reaction speed was on point this weekend for Suzuki rider Francessca Nocera who hauled out of the gate to take her second holeshot here in Loket.

Sneaking up the inside of the Italian around turn one to pull across and take the line away, rookie Nancy Van De Ven snatched the early lead. With Van De Ven blocking Nocera into turn two, the door was left wide open for the likes of Team One One Four’s Livia Lancelot and Team Dragon Moto’s Stephanie Laier to follow through.

While Van De Ven, who was sporting a four stroke for the first time this season, was left with the 2008 FIM Women’s Motocross World Champion Lancelot breathing down her neck, the hottest title contenders Fontanesi and Rutledge were hustling from outside the top 10.

Before the end of lap one Lancelot carried more momentum through the waves to go around the outside of the hard charging Van De Ven and take over the lead only to lose it less than half a lap later when she washed out her front end on a slick corner at the bottom of the circuit.

Meanwhile both Rutledge and Fontanesi were on the ‘slice and dice’ as they had both chopped through the field and tagged onto the back of the leader young Nancy Van De Ven.

With Lancelot scrambling back to the front of the pack around mid-race, intensity levels hit the roof with four riders right in the thick of a possible race win. Not only was a WMX round win up for grabs, the championship was too with only seven points separating Fontanesi and Rutledge.

At one point in the race, Rutledge led Van De Ven who was under the attack of Fontanesi who was also preoccupied with trying to hold off a prying Lancelot.

When Lancelot found a way around the defending champion, the championship for Fontanesi was put in jeopardy, had it of finished in the order of Rutledge, Van De Ven, Lancelot, Fontanesi – Rutledge would have been crowned champion.

Fortunately for Fontanesi, all commotion was put to rest when Lancelot, a proven master of hilly, rocky, clay based circuits, decided she’d turn up the heat and charge past all three riders to run away with a convincing race win.

Rutledge held on for second while Fontanesi backed off the pace to secure third and wrap up the championship. Meanwhile Laier leapt past Van De Ven in the closing stages of the race to take fourth with Van De Ven being forced to settle for fifth.

While the WMX title was a long shot this weekend for Team One One Four’s Livia Lancelot, she was the strongest rider in the second half of the season winning half of the final eight races with a winning performance here at the final round.

Yamaha MXFonta Racing’s Kiara Fontanesi celebrated her hat trick of WMX championship titles from the second step of the podium here in Loket while Bud Racing Kawasaki’s Meghan Rutledge, banker of the most round wins this season, defended her number two ranking with a pair of seconds for third.

Team Dragon Moto’s Stephanie Laier was fourth in both races for fourth overall for the day and for the championship, while Nancy Van De Ven did a similar thing taking two fifths for fifth as well as a world ranking of five.

2014 FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship
Round six – Loket, Czech Republic

Overall results:
1. Livia Lancelot 45
2. Chiara Fontanesi 45
3. Meghan Kat Rutledge (AUS) 44
4. Stephanie Laier 36
5. Nancy Van De Ven 32
6. Larissa Papenmeier 28
7. Francesca Nocera 27
8. Anne Borchers 25
9. Mariana Balbi 24
10. Julie Dalgaard 24

Championship standings:
1. Chiara Fontanesi 255
2. Meghan Kat Rutledge (AUS) 250
3. Livia Lancelot 232
4. Stephanie Laier 212
5. Nancy Van De Ven 182
6. Larissa Papenmeier 172
7. Natalie Kane 151
8. Anne Borchers 145
9. Marianne Veenstra 127
10. Francesca Nocera 115

Click here for detailed results