Beryl Burton won the women's world title twice in the 1960s before Mandy Jones won on home soil at Goodwood in 1982. Tom Simpson was Britain's first men's world road race champion, winning his rainbow jersey in the Basque Country in 1965.
Dave Marsh won the world road race championship for amateurs in Liverpool in 1922, when British riders won gold, silver and bronze. Graham Webb was amateur road race champion in 1967 - the most astonishing thing being that his victory came on the same day as Burton's win in the women's race
Chris Boardman won the first ever world individual time trial title in Sardinia in 1994 when the UCI introduced the event to the World Championship programme.
Nicole Cooke added to the tally in 2008 by winning the road race, with Emma Pooley taking the time trial in 2010, Mark Cavendish the road race in 2011, Bradley Wiggins winning the time trial title in 2014 and Lizzie Armitstead winning the women's road race in 2015.
Here is a run down of all the British medallists in the World Championships on the road.
Men's road race
GOLD
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Tom Simpson, 1965 San Sebastian, Spain
Mark Cavendish, 2011 Copenhagen, Denmark
Men's amateur road race
GOLD
Dave Marsh, 1922 Liverpool, Great Britain
Graham Webb, 1967 Heerlen, Netherlands
SILVER
William Burkill, 1922 Liverpool, Great Britain
Les West, 1966 Adenau, West Germany
BRONZE
Charles Dawey, 1921 Copenhagen, Denmark
Charles Dawey, 1922 Liverpool, Great Britain
Men's under-23 road race
BRONZE
Jonny Bellis, 2007 Stuttgart, Germany
Andy Fenn, 2011 Copenhagen, Denmark
The men's under-23 road race was first run in 1996. Until 1995 the road races were divided into professional and amateur. From 1996 this became elite and under-23
Men's time trial
GOLD
Chris Boardman, 1994 Catania, Italy
David Millar, 2003 Hamilton, Canada - Millar admitted using EPO and was stripped of his title, which was handed to Australia's Michael Rogers
Bradley Wiggins, 2014 Ponferrada, Spain
SILVER
Chris Boardman, 1996 Lugano, Switzerland
David Millar, 2001 Lisbon, Portugal
David Millar, 2010 Geelong, Australia
Bradley Wiggins, 2011 Copenhagen, Denmark
Bradley Wiggins, 2013 Tuscany, Italy
BRONZE
Chris Boardman, 1997 San Sebastian, Spain
Chris Boardman, 1999 Verona, Italy
Sir Bradley Wiggins on the podium after winning the elite men's time trial at the 2014 World Championships
Nigel Wynn worked as associate editor on CyclingWeekly.com, he worked almost single-handedly on the Cycling Weekly website in its early days. His passion for cycling, his writing and his creativity, as well as his hard work and dedication, were the original driving force behind the website’s success. Without him, CyclingWeekly.com would certainly not exist on the size and scale that it enjoys today. Nigel sadly passed away, following a brave battle with a cancer-related illness, in 2018. He was a highly valued colleague, and more importantly, an exceptional person to work with - his presence is sorely missed.
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