Mark Cavendish sprinted to victory in a nail-biting finish in Copenhagen to claim the Road World Championship title for Great Britain.
The Manxman was forced to kick early and edged out Matt Goss (Australia) on the line as the rainbow jersey was decided in a thrilling bunch sprint.
Cavendish capped off a tireless performance by the eight-man Great Britain squad who weathered the storm as a number of late attacks fired off the front.
Andre Greipel (Germany) took the photo finish for the bronze medal from Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) on the testing uphill finish to round out the podium places.
The first British World Champion since Tom Simpson claimed victory in San Sebastian in 1965, Cavendish was thrilled at the finish and full of praise for the work of his team.
He said: "There couldn't be another result after the way the guys rode today. We had eight guys - eight of the best guys in the world - and it's the first time we've come together. It's incredible.
"They took the race on from start to finish and we won. I can't believe it."
The sense of relief was palpable for the sprinter who came into the race as favourite, with Cavendish adding: "We knew three years ago when this course was announced. We put a plan together to come with the best group of guys to this race and bring the rainbow jersey back to Britain.
"It's been three years in the making, the guys have worked so hard to collect (UCI) points throughout the season to bring eight riders here. You just saw they rode incredible. I'm so proud."The pattern for the race was set early on as Great Britain took up the pace-setting duties on the front of the peloton as a number of nations looked to pile on the pressure at every opportunity.
At the bell lap Klaas Lodewyck (Belgium), Nicki Sorensen (Denmark) and Thomas Voeckler (France) held a slender margin of 18 seconds as Bradley Wiggins led Team GB across the line.
Wiggins, fresh from winning a silver medal days earlier in the World Time Trial Championship, rode hard throughout the day and turned himself inside out on the final lap to bring back the dangerous breakaway.
Ian Stannard and Geraint Thomas helped place Cavendish into position heading into the final corner and onto the steep final straight, the sprinter making no mistake to add a rainbow jersey to his already glittering palmares.Under bright and sunny skies riders representing 30 nations rolled out of Copenhagen ahead of 266km of racing.Attacks began immediately with the first lap of the circuit covered at one of the quickest speeds in recent memory around a course widely believed to suit the sprinters.
A group of seven riders finally made an attack stick allowing Anthony Roux (France), Robert Kiserlovski (Croatia), Pablo Lastras (Spain), Tanel Kangert (Estonia), Oleg Chuzhda (Ukraine), Christian Poos (Luxembourg) and Maxim Iglinskiy (Kazakhstan).
The gap to the escapees briefly tipped over the eight-minute mark with Great Britain and Germany working in unison on the front of the bunch.
A highly tactical affair as expected, Chris Froome, David Millar, Jeremy Hunt and Steve Cummings worked hard throughout the day to ensure the race ended in a sprint for Cavendish.
A large crash with five laps to go saw a large split to form in the bunch, distancing a number of contenders and creating a forlorn chase group including defending champion Thor Hushovd.
A late final attack from Johnny Hoogerland (Holland) made it four riders out front while Wiggins turned himself inside out in the peloton to haul the move back, keeping the pace high in a bid to stave off further attackers.
Despite a huge weight of expectancy and a claustrophobic final sprint Cavendish was able to find the gap he needed to accelerate to the biggest win of his career.