The Barnes sisters, Alena Amialiusik, Elena Cecchini, Lisa Klein and Trixi Worrack, won the women’s team time trial after clocking a time of one hour one minute and 47 seconds for the 54.7km course, 22secs ahead of second-placed Boels Dolmans by 22 seconds while Sunweb finished almost 7sec further back.

Having won the race four times previously under different trade team names – Specialized-Lululemon in 2012, 2013 and 2014, and Velocio-Sram in 2015 – the Barnes sisters’s team-mate Worrack completed an astonishing fifth world title in the team event that next year will be dropped from the programme in its current format.

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German rider Worrack said the victory may have surprised some, before adding that the team pulled off the ‘perfect’ ride along the largely downhill course – it featured just 152 metres in vertical elevation.

“For sure it’s really nice,” Worrack said. “We didn’t win one TTT [team time trial] this year so it was a bit of a surprise, but I think only for the others, because we knew what we could do if we had the perfect day – we could finish on the podium or even on top.

“It was pretty difficult because it was a long course and we’ve never done a 55km course so we had to time it really well and not over-pace, but it was perfect.”

Hannah, the elder of the two Barnes’s and the British national time trial champion, added that the afternoon was ‘ really special’.

“We rode really smoothly,” Hannah Barnes said. “We wanted to do a perfect ride and if I think back now there’s nothing we can fault from our ride today. We did everything right. This feels so cool to win it.

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“I was thinking during the race, that even if we didn’t win that we could be happy because we rode so well as a team. But to win and then be able to celebrate all together on the podium, this is really special.”

Meanwhile, in the men’s race Belgian team Quick-Step Floors won their fourth world title on the 62.8km course after finishing 19secs ahead of defending champions Sunweb with BMC Racing, who were racing their final team time trial in Europe before the team disbands at the end of the season, came in third to take bronze.

The championships continue on Monday with the junior women’s and men’s under-23 time trials and conludes next Sunday with the men’s road race.