Dame Sarah Storey won her 11th UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships gold with a magnificent display in Italy.
Britain’s most successful female Paralympian made a winning return to international cycling – claiming her 30th medal at a cycling world championships in her illustrious career and her 30th world championships across both cycling and swimming.
There were also first-ever road world titles for the tandem duo of Steve Bate and Adam Duggleby and for Katie Toft after their maiden world golds on the track in March.
The pressure was on for Storey, who has won the time trial and road race double at each of the last five world championships she has raced at.
The overwhelming race favourite, Storey showed she could cope in the circumstances, crossing the line in 18:53.62 in Maniago to take gold – with her teammate Crystal Lane-Wright finishing in second place, just over half a minute back.
Katie Toft continued her excellent 2018 with a second world title.
The C1 rider took gold in the individual pursuit on the track in Rio earlier this year – and added the road C1 time trial to her honours after setting a time of 25:01.85.
Twelve months ago, the tandem pair of Steve Bate and Adam Duggleby just missed out on the time trial gold after suffering a mechanical in their effort in Pietermaritzburg.
Maniago proved to be a happier hunting ground – with the duo winning their first world title on the road by the smallest of margins.
They completed the 27.2km course in 31:31.76 – beating their Dutch rivals by less than a second.
There was also a first world championships medal for Craig Collis-McCann – the trike rider claiming silver in the T2 time trial with a time of 22:58.21 over the 13.6km course, with Ryan Boyle of the USA taking gold.
Tandem duo Lora Fachie and Corrine Hall won silver for the second year in a row in the time trial after setting a time of 35:43.38 – just beaten by Ireland’s Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal.
Ben Watson won C3 bronze to earn a time trial medal for the second road world championships in a row.
Watson stopped the clock in 36:50.72 to finish third behind Michael Sametz of Canada.
In the same category, debutant Fin Graham put on a solid showing, finishing 12th.
Elsewhere and both Megan Giglia and Hannah Dines just missed out on a place on the podium – with both riders finishing fourth in their events.
Giglia set a time of 22:34.38 in the C3 time trial, with the world title going to Sweden’s Anna Beck.
Dines stopped the clock in 27:24.55 as the USA’s Jill Walsh took the rainbow stripes.
George Peasgood finished fifth on debut in the C4 category with a time of 36:03.58 as the legendary Jozef Metalka of Slovakia won gold.
Will Bjergfelt finished sixth in the C5 – crossing the line in 35:19.86 with gold going to Netherlands rider Daniel Abraham Gebru.
Simon Price finished eighth in the C2 time trial in 19:31.74, just under a minute behind winner Arslan Gilmutdinov of Russia, with Louis Rolfe finishing 14th.
David Smith continued his incredible comeback from illness with a 13th place finish in the C1 time trial as Michael Teuber of Germany won gold.
