[3] The men's and women's elite road races followed separate routes before entering a 14 km (9 mi) circuit in and around the town of Harrogate.

Mads Pedersen surprised in the men's road race by becoming the first Danish world champion in the event after winning the sprint in a three-man breakaway.

[24] One of the favourites, Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands, had also been in the breakaway but could not follow it on the last lap and finished over ten minutes behind.

This left four men where Italy's Gianni Moscon later lost contact; he finished in fourth place but was unable to help his teammate Trentin.

Three-time champion Peter Sagan of Slovakia made a late breakaway from a larger chase group but could not catch the leaders and came fifth, followed by Michael Valgren of Denmark.

The silver went to the 19-year-old Belgian Remco Evenepoel who skipped the under-23 event after winning both the road race and time trial for juniors in 2018.

The American Chloé Dygert Owen won by 1 minute 32 seconds, the largest margin ever in a world championship time trial.

The inaugural event was won by one of the favourites, the Dutch team, with the female trio of Lucinda Brand, Riejanne Markus, Amy Pieters, and the male triumvirate Koen Bouwman, Bauke Mollema and Jos van Emden.

In the road race, Nils Eekhoff of the Netherlands won the sprint in a seven-man group but was later disqualified for drafting behind his team car for too long after a crash.

[36] *   Host nation (Great Britain)The legacy of the Worlds event has been reported with £15 million worth of funding to go towards the construction of 27 off-road racing venues around the country, "to ensure that every part of Britain has close access to a closed road circuit, velodrome, BMX track or mountain bike trail".