Pauline Ferrand-Prevot won the cross country mountain bike world title Saturday, making the Frenchwoman the favorite to take gold at the Paris Olympic Games next year.

The 31-year-old defending champion was 1 minute, 14 seconds faster than her compatriot, Loana Lecomte, in the Glentress forest in Scotland, where 13 world championships events are being played out.

The Netherlands' pre-race favorite, Puck Pieterse, came third at 1 minute, 27 seconds.

Ferrand-Prevot now has 15 world titles in various disciplines and recently became the first female cyclist to join Ineos Grenadiers.

She has so far been cursed at the Olympics, however, coming 26th at London 2012, pulling out at Rio and finishing 10th in Tokyo.

Tom Pidcock, Peter Sagan and Mathieu van der Poel all are taking part in the men's mountain bike cross country marathon later Saturday.