Marco Mathis was the second man to tackle the 28.9 kilometres course, which came to a conclusion on Pearl Island.

The German maintained a strong pace through each of the checkpoints and finished his ride in a time of 34min and 8sec.

While he was left in the hotseat at the finish, Mathis’ rivals were left tackling the Doha sunshine as temperatures again played their part in the proceedings.

Over four hours after crossing the finish line, Mathis was able to celebrate victory with defending champion Mads Wurtz Schmidt of Denmark the last man to complete the distance, however he could only manage 21st place.

Mathis’ team-mate Maximilian Schachmann would prove his closest challenger after ending 18 seconds down, with Australia’s Miles Scotson finishing 37 seconds off the pace to win bronze.

The Netherlands also ended the day with a gold medal, with Karlijn Swinkels triumphing in the junior women’s individual time trial.

Swinkels delivered an impressive ride on the flat course, which was 13.7km long, to finish in a time of 18:21.

There would only be eight seconds between the top two riders, with recently crowned European champion Lisa Morzenti forced to settle for the silver medal on this occasion.

The podium was completed by Juliette Labous of France, who finished 22 seconds behind the winner’s time.

“I came here on Thursday, we did a recovery ride on Friday and then on the second day, I rode on the course and I did every curve ten times to make sure it was perfect,” said Swinkels.

“I’m very proud, I did not expect it at all, but dreams come true.”

Racing continues tomorrow with the junior men and the elite women's individual time trials set to take place.

Both races will take place over 28.9km.