The moment Peter Sagan's Worlds almost went up in smoke

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It was almost all over before it began for Peter Sagan at the UCI Road World Championships when Tinkoff-Saxo crashed at high speed in the team time trial.

The rider who would go on to become world road race champion a week later had a lucky escape as teammates Michael Rogers and Michael Valgren hit the deck after touching wheels on a long, flat, straight section of the course.

"I think it was a simple touch of wheels. I don't know what happened, there was nothing I could do, I just went straight over the top," Rogers told Cyclingnews at the finish line.

In a photo sequence of the crash, Cyclingnews can show the moment that Sagan's Worlds almost went up in smoke. Luckily for the 25-year-old, he and Chris Juul Jensen had been at the front taking a pull for Tinkoff-Saxo at the time of the crash.

Sagan proved to be the strongest rider in the road race on Sunday, powering away from Greg Van Avermaet up the 23rd Street climb and holding off the chasers in the final three kilometres to arrive solo at the finish line and celebrate a maiden rainbow jersey on the road.

You can the design of Sagan's world champion's jersey right here.