The 2022 UCI Road World Championships produced 12 individual champions during a week of racing in Wollongong, Australia.

While Great Britain topped the medal count, the winners in the elite men's and elite/U23 women's races were the two star riders of the peloton. Saturday and Sunday's races brought strong solo victories from far and near the finish line.

Because of the time difference, many fans around the world had to choose between watching the elite races in the middle of the night or getting a good night's sleep, Cycling News will bring you official video highlights of the two major events of the weekend.

Remco Evenpole (Belgium) took the rainbow jersey alone, but that was only part of the day's storyline; after the 2021 World Championships turned out to be a disaster for the host nation, Sunday was a different story.

After France tried to blow the race early on Mount Keira, the race settled into a familiar breakaway pattern, with the French trying again on Mount Pleasant, less than 80km from the finish.

Evenpoel entered the breakaway with several of his Belgian teammates, but there were no leading riders in the final breakaway. With 35km to go, he made the decisive move of the day, dragging Kazakhstan's Alexey Lutsenko with him as the main group was well behind.

He climbed the Mount Pleasant climb 10km later alone, and in the final kilometer, as the peloton overtook the breakaway, he won convincingly by more than two minutes to lead Christophe Laporte (France) and Michael Matthews (Australia) to silver and bronze medals, respectively.

On Saturday, the first ever joint elite and U23 women's road race was held, with 2019 champion Annemiek van Grooten (Netherlands) competing as team domestique after breaking her elbow during the mixed relay TTT.

She clinched the win with a brilliant breakaway in the final stages of the 164 km race, coming from behind to take the rainbow jersey again.

After a successful break just before the end of the race, a series of strong breakaways were set up, including an attack by Maren Reusser (Switzerland) with 12km to go.

However, she was caught on the final climb of Mount Pleasant, and Holland and Van Vleuten sealed this attack and the previous move. Then came a strong countermove and regrouping in the finale, and Van Vleuten jumped from the back of the elite group to take a dramatic victory.

Niamh Fisher-Black (New Zealand) finished 12th, 12 seconds ahead of Pfeiffer Gheorghi (Great Britain) to win the first ever U23 women's road race title.