Michal Kwiatkowski (POL) is the new world road race champion following his triumph in Spain this afternoon.
The Omega Pharma-QuickStep rider took the win ahead of the pre-race favourites Simon Gerrans (Aus) and Alejandro Valverde (Esp), who finished second and third respectively.
With 20 of the race's 254 kilometres left to race, a group of three riders - Michael Valgren Anderson (Den), Cyril Gautier (Fra) and Alessandro De Marchi (Ita) - held a minute's advantage over the peloton.
On the final lap of the course, the gap was falling steadily and as it dropped to eight seconds, Kwiatkowski made his move.
The 24-year-old, fresh from winning the points competition and second overall at the Tour of Britain, jumped from the peloton to the break and then proceeded to drop them, opening a reasonable gap between himself and the chase.
It took a long time for the peloton to find a response, but it finally came, with a six-man attack.
The group consisted of Philippe Gilbert (Bel), Gerrans, Valverde, Matti Breschel (Den), Tony Gallopin (Fra) and the defending world champion Rui Costa (Por).
However, they had left it much too late and Kwiatkowski had the time to savour his victory as he crossed the line.
The young man from Poland appeared slightly overwhelmed in the immediate aftermath, saying: “I saw some of the riders there were still calculating. And I won. That was incredible.
“Two days ago I was watching the U23 race and I knew it was possible to ride in a smaller group, especially with the rain which we had today, it was very risky. I made my effort on the climb.
“We decided just to continue racing, to stay in the front.
“I felt great from the start. What our guys did was just amazing.”
Kwiatkowski's win makes him Poland's first ever senior world road race champion.