The 24-year-old, who became the youngest ever world champion when he won the same event in 2015, triumphed ahead of his two Belgian rivals Wout Van Aert and Toon Aerts in 1 hour 09min 20sec.

It means the Dutchman has gone through all the major events of the season unbeaten having won every race in which he took part on the World Cup circuit as well.

In the battle for second place it was Van Aert who triumphed, beating the overall World Cup winner Aerts by nine seconds in 1:09:36.

Aerts claimed the bronze medal in 1:09.45.

The Dutchman was unable to blast away from the rest early on as he has often done this year, though he did eventually break away on the third lap.

A lap later, Van Aert had closed the gap only for van der Poel to ahead again in the second-half of the race and at one point had a lead of half-a-minute on the rest of the field, which he was never likely to give up.

"There was a lot of weight coming off my shoulders when crossing that finish line," van der Poel said.

"It was a very long race for me.

"Finally it comes together again.

"I’ve had an incredible season so far and I was very confident today but still, it’s a World Championship and it’s always hard to win.

"I’m glad I can wear the [winners] jersey again.

"It’s been too long."