Great Britain top medal table at 2022 UCI Road World Championships

Great Britain topped the medal table at the 2022 UCI Road World Championships, with junior sensation Zoe Backstedt leading them to their most successful ever Road Worlds. 

Backstedt did the road race and time trial double in the women's junior category to bring in two gold medals, while her Welsh compatriot Josh Tarling added a third gold in the junior men's time trial. 

Leo Hayter claimed bronze in the men's U23 time trial, while Pfeiffer Georgi capped things off with a silver medal in the first-ever U23 women's road race category to give Britain a total of five medals. 

With the introduction of the U23 women's categories – albeit within the existing framework of the elite races rather than standalone events – there were more medals on offer at 2022 Worlds than ever before. 

A total of 36 medals were handed out across the 13 categories, with the medals shared between 13 different nations. 

It was Belgium, in fact, who came away with the most medals - six. However, with only one gold, they have to settle for fourth place in our final medal table, with the Netherlands taking second spot and Norway third.

We've used the widespread 'gold first' weighting system, whereby countries are firstly ranked in order of gold medals won and then by silver and bronze. 

The Netherlands claimed a pair of marquee golds with the elite women's road race and time trial double, thanks to Annemiek Van Vleuten and Ellen Van Dijk, respectively. Shirin van Anrooj took silver in the U23 women's time trial and Nienke Vinke bronze in the junior women's road race. 

It was a decent return but still a disappointing Worlds for the Dutch, whose defence of the Mixed Relay TTT world title was undone by Van Vleuten's freak crash, and who lost men's road race favourite Mathieu van der Poel to a hugely damaging run-in with the law. 

Norway showed their time trialling class to take a pair of gold medals, Tobias Foss producing one of the biggest upsets to win the elite men's event and Soren Wærenskjold showing the future's bright with gold in the men's U23 event. The latter added a bronze in the U23 road race to give Norway three medals. 

Six other nations won one gold medal, but Belgium were way out in front, also sweeping two silver and three bronze. The gold came courtesy of Remco Evenepoel's storming solo victory in the elite men's road race on the final day, and it could have been a double had Van Vleuten not slipped clear in the women's, with Lotte Kopecky settling for a disappointing silver. 

Alec Segaert added the second silver in the U23 men's time trial, while Evenepoel also claimed a bronze in the elite men's TT, along with third-place finishes for Vlad Van Mechelen and Febe Jooris in the junior road races. After last year's controversies on home soil, not even the harshest Belgian critics could really be disappointed with this return. 

Germany took five medals, including Emil Herzog's dramatic victory in the junior men's road race, while Italy and Switzerland both won one of every colour - the former taking the first U23 women's road race title through Vittoria Guazzini and the latter triumphing in the Mixed Relay Team Time Trial. 

Kazakhstan – through Yevgeniy Fedorov in the U23 men's road race – and New Zealand – through Niamh Fisher-Black in the U23 women's road race – were the only other nations to win a gold medal. 

The home nation Australia came close to gold but left with two silver medals and two bronze – still a decent haul. 

The USA, meanwhile, had a miserable Worlds with not a single medal won. Likewise, Spain were among the major cycling nations to leave empty-handed, although their elite men's squad was depleted by fitness issues and riders not being released by trade teams.