Back in July Rohan Dennis made headlines by disappearing from the Tour de France in mysterious style, but two months later Australia’s world time trial champion made an emphatic entry to Harrogate, dominating the men’s elite time trial from start to finish to defend his title by 1min 9sec from the 19-year-old Belgian prodigy Remco Evenepoel, the youngest ever medallist in this event by several years.

Dennis abandoned the Tour de France on stage 12, the day before his main target, the solo time trial stage in Pau, in a move that appeared to have been sparked by a dispute with his trade team, Bahrain-Merida, over equipment. On Wednesday he appeared at the start line in Northallerton with a bike that did not appear to be team issue, having not raced since July, with a point to prove.

Cycling Road World Championships: Dennis wins men's time trial – as it happened Read more

The 29-year-old from Adelaide was 19sec faster than Evenepoel at the first time check after 16.7km, but gained time substantially from then on, moving more than one minute clear at the second check close to Fountains Abbey at 37km. The scale of his ride was simply measured: he overhauled the recent Vuelta a España winner Primoz Roglic, who had started three minutes ahead, after just 31 of the 50km, on a particularly technical and demanding part of the course.

The Slovenian raced him from there to the finish line but the point had been made: Dennis was head and shoulders clear of the rest. “It’s been a tough year, there has been a lot of talk since the Tour de France about what I am doing,” said Dennis. “I really wanted to come here in my best shape to show that I haven’t hung my bike up. I’ve still got a lot to give the sport.”

As for Evenepoel, this result continued a vertiginous trajectory of improvement that has made him the hottest property in professional cycling. It comes at the end of his first professional season, in which he has gone straight from the junior ranks to World Tour to win the European time trial title and the San Sebastian Classic; it bodes well for his debut in the elite road race on Sunday.

The diminutive youngster rode a flawless race – cool headed enough to freewheel briefly to pull up an aerodynamic sock immediately after he left the start ramp – and surviving a near miss approaching Masham when he changed course to avoid a cat’s eye on a left-hand bend, and came close to piling into the parapet of a bridge. He was more fortunate than his fellow Belgians Yves Lampaert and Victor Campenaerts – both his senior in years and experience – both of whom crashed late on.

The bronze medal went to the Italian Filippo Ganna, while the specialist from Essex, Alex Dowsett, managed a creditable fifth place having paced his effort perfectly to gain significant ground in the second half of the race. But Ganna and the rest were all around two minutes or more behind Dennis; the enigmatic Australian and the precocious Belgian were in a class of their own.

Over a course that looped west then south from Northallerton, and in conditions that were positively benign compared to the monsoon rain of Tuesday, the early pace was set by the Scot John Archibald. Aged 28, the brother of the Olympic medallist Katie Archibald has proved his ability as a pursuiter on the track and had been part of the Great Britain team that had won bronze in Sunday’s mixed relay, but this was new territory for him. It raised the question: should he have been selected as of right ahead of the Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas, whose late withdrawal paved the way for his entry to the race.

On Thursday, the road races begin, with the junior men racing over a course that starts in Richmond and heads west through the Yorkshire Dales before passing Bolton Abbey to return into Harrogate for three laps of the tricky finish circuit. Sam Watson heads a British sextet in a race in which no British rider has ever taken a medal.