In a sprint to the finish line, Great Britain's Mark Cavendish became world champion after making his move down the right-hand side of the course, and just managed to hold off the rest of the field, to become his country's first road race world champion since Tom Simpson won the event in San Sebastián in 1965.

[4] The field started quickly, with an average speed close to 50 km/h (31 mph) for the first half-hour of racing, as breaks went and were brought back.

Finally a breakaway formed, which consisted of seven riders: in the break were Oleg Chuzhda, Maxim Iglinsky, Tanel Kangert, Robert Kišerlovski, Pablo Lastras, Christian Poos and Anthony Roux.

These five riders began to eat into the lead break's advantage, with Offredo staying mostly at the back of the line with his teammate Roux up ahead.

The peloton itself, still being led by the British, had split as result of a fall in the thirteenth lap, causing some big names to fall back and never catch up with the main pack, including amongst others the defending champion Thor Hushovd, 2011 time trial world champion Tony Martin and quick finisher Greg Van Avermaet.

Eventually all riders were brought back, with Anthony Roux surviving the longest, only to be caught by his countryman Thomas Voeckler as he stormed past to form a new leading group in the penultimate lap together with Nicki Sørensen and Klaas Lodewyck.

Matthew Goss was a close second, while André Greipel needed a photo finish to hold off Fabian Cancellara for bronze.