Balsamo eased to victory in the women's race, confidently celebrating her win as she crossed the line.

The 74.5 kilometres race, consisting of five laps of the 15.2km circuit, began with a large crash, shattering the 80-strong peloton.

In large parts the race was extremely tight with riders from Germany, the United States and then Italy taking the lead over the course of proceedings.

Balsamo, however, was able to make the most of her dominant position was the clear winner in a time of 1 hour 53min 04sec.

Skylar Schneider of the US took the silver medal and Norway's Susanne Andersen claimed the bronze.

After finishing second in the European Championships this summer, Balsamo’s gold was Italy’s first of this event after Lisa Morzenti’s silver in the women’s junior time trial and Jakub Mareczko’s bronze in the men’s under-23 road race.

"This title isn’t mine, it goes out to all the team, and it’s for all women in Italy," Balsamo said.

"It is well deserved by the Italian team and I hope we do equally well for the rest of the competition."

In the junior men’s road race, Denmark's Jakob Egholm powered through a group of 18 chasers to win the race with a seven second margin.

Egholm triumphed in a field of 185 as Germany’s NIklas Markl claimed the silver medal and Switzerland’s Reto Muller, who came fourth last year, took bronze.

Egholm’s team-mate Julius Johansen briefly opened a gap alongside Alexys Brunel of France and American Brendan McNulty who, earlier in the week, was crowned junior time trial world champion.

With two laps to go the leading trio, whose advantage had never extended past 20 seconds, had been caught by the chasing pack.

On the last lap of the 135.3km event, Johansen and Egholm pulled away.

Johansen, however, could not maintain the pace and fell behin Egholm, who had a margin of around 12 seconds to defend.

Caught by Brunel, Johansen continued to tussle with the Frenchman in the hope of attaining either silver or bronze, but finally in the last kilometre, the chasing duo were caught once again.

Egholm remained out in front and although he showed signs of fatigue, he managed to fend off the pack for a narrow but impressive solo win.

In the nations rankings, Germany has now opened up an almost unassailable advantage of nearly 300 points.

The Germans are on 965 points ahead of the US with 669, while The Netherlands are a very distant third on 442.

Racing is due to continue tomorrow with the elite women’s road race over a distance of 134km.