The reigning Paralympic champion clocked a time of 29 min 37.84sec in the men's H5 event to beat nearest challenger Tim de Vries of host country The Netherlands by 4.32 seconds.

The United States' Oscar Sanchez, the Rio 2016 Paralympic bronze medallist, finished third in 30:05.15.

Other Italians joining Zanardi in gold were Roberta Amadeo in the women's H2 in 21:29.89, Luca Mazzone in the men's H2 in 33:03.98 and Fabrizio Cornegliani in the men's H1 in 20:37.88.

Also impressing today were Germany, claiming three titles courtesy of Hans-Peter Durst in the men's T2 in 34:06.93, Vico Merklein in the men's H3 in 29:49.20 and Andrea Eskau in the women's H5 in 34:47.48.

There were also two triumphs for Australian Carol Cooke in the women’s T2 in 38:11.66, and The Netherlands' Emilie Miller as the sole competitor in the women's H1 in 43:42.02.

Jetze Plat and Jennette Jansen prevailed for the Dutch in front of a home crowd in the men's and women's H4 races, respectively.

Plat's winning time was 28:03.81, while Jansen crossed the line in 33:12.11.

Today's other winners were China's Jianxin Chen in the men's T1 in 36:38.64, New Zealand's Eltje Malzbender in the women's T1 in 44:56.16 and the American Alicia Dana in the women's H3 in 34:41.53.

The road races get underway tomorrow.