Filippo Ganna broke Belgian hearts at the road cycling world championships in Flanders as he retained his individual time trial title by beating local favourite Wout van Aert on Sunday.
The Italian lagged behind Van Aert at both intermediate checks but he managed his effort better on the pancake-flat 43km course to clock 47 minutes 47 seconds.
Van Aert finished 5.37 seconds behind with another Belgian, Remco Evenepoel, picking up the bronze medal 43.34 seconds off the pace.
"In a week, my condition improved very well after a short camp in altitude," Ganna said.
"Today when I woke up I had a good feeling in the legs and the head did the rest."
Evenepoel clocked the first time of reference but Van Aert, who snatched silver in both the time trial and the road race at last year's world championships in Imola, Italy was already 28 seconds up at the first intermediate check.
Ganna lagged six seconds behind Van Aert after 13.8km with Swiss Stefan Kueng 17 seconds off the pace.
Van Aert increased his advantage over Evenepoel to 31 seconds at the second intermediate but Ganna was less than a second behind in a nail-biting finale.
The momentum had swung the Italian's way and Ganna punched the air in celebration after crossing the line.
Ryan Mullen and Marcus Christie flew the flag for Ireland on the streets of Bruges.
Mullen got through the course in a time of 51:59.73, averaging 49.96kph to finish in 33rd position, over four minutes behind the gold medal winner, while Christie crossed the line in a time of 53:07.20, averaging 48.90kph to finish in 39th position.
"I'm quite happy with my ride. It was a big improvement compared to last week at the Europeans," said Mullen.
"It was just lonely out there, the long straights, nothing but trees and windmills for company. I'm satisfied with the ride, I got it all out there I just wish I had more to give at this moment in time but it is how it is and we’ll move onto the road race on Sunday."
Four-times time trial world champion Tony Martin of Germany, who said he would retire after the championships, finished sixth.
