Livia Lancelot suffered terrible luck at the final round of the FIM Women’s World Motocross Championship when she was unable to contest the final race of the series at Loket in the Czech Republic.

Shrugging off the injuries which have plagued her since the French GP at the end of May the rider-owner of Team One One Four Kawasaki had doubled her slender series points lead in the opening moto on Saturday evening by finishing second, one ahead of her title rival, but complications during the sighting lap for race two on Sunday morning saw her return to the pits to collect her spare bike.

Unknown to the French girl this is prohibited by the series regulations and officials had no option than to exclude her from the race. Her series rival only needed to finish the race within the first 16, a task she achieved with ease as she crossed the finishing line second, to deny Livia the title she so richly deserved.

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“I was happy to get some more points on Saturday, but I didn’t sleep so well on Saturday night as I imagined so many scenarios for the second moto,” Livia Lancelot said. “But I could never imagine that I would not be able start the race… We worked a lot on the bike all year long and never had any problem, but here during the sighting lap there was a strange noise and I couldn’t finish the lap.

“I ran and took my second bike, but that’s not possible within the rules and I was not allowed to start the race. Once more I finished second in the series; for sure I’m disappointed but I will recover and be back next season.

“Most of my partners already told me that they want to continue working with me; now I just need to take a break to come back stronger. The plan for the rest of the season is to race some Supercross. I know already that I will be at the Lille Supercross and Geneva; for sure I will not race for the win, but I want to show, as Vicky Golden did in the US, that a woman can also race at a good level in Supercross.”