Britain's Bradley Wiggins has won gold in the men's time-trial at the Road World Championships in Spain.

The Olympic champion clocked 56 minutes 25.52 seconds for the 47.1-kilometre route in Ponferrada to win by an emphatic margin of 26.23secs.

Germany's Tony Martin, seeking a fourth straight world title, had to settle for silver in 56mins 51.75secs, while Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands finished in 57:06.16 to take bronze.

It was Britain's first gold in the event in 20 years, since Chris Boardman won the inaugural edition of the road time-trial.

Ireland's Nicolas Roche finished in 41st position, three minutes and 50 seconds adrift of Wiggins's winning time.

The 2012 Tour de France champion is a multiple world champion on the track but now has his first world title on the road.

Wiggins plans to return to the track for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and vowed this would be his last Road World Championships Wiggins was second to Martin in 2011 and 2013, but overturned the German in winning the Olympic title at Hampton Court in 2012.

The 34-year-old was second to Martin at the first time-check, but then moved ahead by two seconds and then by more than nine seconds at the third time-check.

Wiggins crossed the line well clear of the rest of the field and with Martin the only man remaining on the course and the only man who could beat him.

And Wiggins put his thumb up when he learned Martin had been unable to surpass his performance.

Boardman won the first time-trial title in 1994, but Britain has had to settle for minor podium places since.

David Millar, who was stripped of the 2003 world time-trial title, is the captain of Britain’s team for the men’s road race on Sunday.

Wiggins has had a challenging year, missing out on Team Sky selection for the Tour de France, which began in Yorkshire, despite having placed an impressive ninth in Paris-Roubaix in April and winning the Tour of California in May.

He refocused for the team pursuit at Glasgow 2014, but England had to settle for silver behind the Australian quartet.

Commonwealth Games gold is one of the few titles to prove elusive to a rider six-time Olympic champion Chris Hoy and Boardman have lauded as the most complete cyclist Britain has ever produced.