Pogačar's teammate Jan Tratnik acted as a lead-out man with around 100 km to go and helped him to deal with some of the course's difficult climbs before the world no.1 launched his solo attack.

Afterwards, Pogačar half-jokingly described it as 'a stupid attack', which happened on the steepest part of the 274 km long course, at a gradient of 17.2%.

Pogačar had made winning the world title a clear goal after his Tour de France victory in July and was the strong favourite from the beginning.

He crossed the line in a time of 6 hours, 27 minutes and 30 seconds, ahead of recent Vuelta a Espana runner-up Ben O'Connor of Australia. The winner of the Vuelta, or Tour of Spain, Primož Roglič, crossed the line with a beaming smile in 64th place, just over 12 minutes behind his victorious teammate.

Defending World Champion Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands claimed the bronze medal in a sprint finish.