A Dutch victory had been heavily tipped prior to the race in Austria, with Van der Breggen and newly crowned time trial champion Annemiek van Vleuten in superb form.

The Netherlands were hoping to avoid a repeat of the European Championship road race in Glasgow when, despite having the clearly superior team, tactical mistakes led to them missing out on delivering the title to one of their riders.

A repeat would not occur in Innsbruck, with Van der Breggen able to secure a dominant victory on the climber friendly course.

She launched a solo attack from the peloton with around 40 kilometre to go of the 156.2km race, which saw her bridge to an earlier breakaway.

Van der Breggen would catch the move and opted to push on clear, with Australia's Amanda Spratt the only rider able to follow.

It would prove only a brief resistance from Spratt, as Van der Breggen would ultimately pull clear to secure a solo win.

The Dutch rider ended in a winning time of 4 hours, 11min and 4sec to secure a maiden world title, having previously clinched four silver medals across road and time trial events.

The result continued The Netherlands' domination of women's elite races at the Championships, with their riders having completed the time trial and road race double in 2017 and 2018.

"I didn't know any gaps, so until the finish line I didn't believe that I'd be the world champion," said Van der Breggen, who won Olympic gold at Rio 2016.

"I just rode as fast as possible.

"I was doubting if it was too early or not to attack by myself when I did it, but since I took this opportunity, I had to go.

"I know how difficult it is to win the World Championship, so I'm really happy."

There was a long gap between the winner and the runner-up, with Spratt taking the silver medal at 3min 42sec down.

The podium was rounded off by Tatiana Guderzo, with the Italian ending 5:26 behind the gold medallist.

The Championships will conclude tomorrow with the men's road race.