Both athletes won their respective events by around half-a-minute, with Dennis performing consistently throughout the 37.4 kilometres route which started and finished in Wolverhampton's West Park to take advantage of an early fall by Geraint Thomas of Wales.

Brown's victory in the 28.8km women's race came in 40min 5.20sec, after she led through all three checkpoints.

She had been considered the favourite for the event having finished fourth at last year's delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and was last to set off from West Park.

Second-placed Anna Henderson of England was 33.35 seconds further back, and New Zealand's Georgia Williams completed the podium.

Williams was a silver medallist in the road race at Gold Coast 2018, and finished 1:20.07 off the pace in the time trial.

Australia's Georgia Baker won two track cycling golds at Birmingham 2022 at the Lee Valley VeloPark in London, but missed out on a medal in the time trial as a 41:44.85 effort earned a fourth-place finish.

Isle of Man's Lizzie Holden and Rebecca Storrie placed fifth and sixth respectively, trailing Brown by 1:43.58 and 1:48.29.

The drama in the men's race came early on.

It had been billed as a battle between Thomas and Dennis for gold, but the Welshman attacked one of several tight bends at pace, clipped the foot of a barrier and fell from his bike.

That handed Dennis an advantage of 30.94 at the 8.8km checkpoint, and the double time trial world champion, denied gold by England's Alex Dowsett at Glasgow 2014, showed no signs of relinquishing his lead.

Dennis also took bronze at Tokyo 2020, and his victory in Wolverhampton came in 46:21.24.

Despite his stumble, Thomas remained second through each of the checkpoints, but was bumped down a place by a brilliant finish from England's Fred Wright in the first wave of riders.

Thomas admitted that he had taken the corner too quickly, although referenced difficulties in preparing for the race, which were also alluded to by Dennis.

"I just went into the corner a bit too hot," he said.

"Only myself to blame.

"I went at it too hard after that, with the adrenaline.

"I did a recon ride, but that was in traffic with no barriers up.

"So it was pretty pointless really."

He also revealed that the collision had damaged his bike as his "brake was bent and the gear thing was off".

Dennis concurred that practice conditions were a very different prospect to the time trial itself.

"Checking the corners when there's traffic, you don't know how fast you can take them," he said.

"When you're coming up at them two or three times quicker than you would at a recon it sometimes catches people out."

The Australian rider insisted that he had "no idea" of Thomas' minor crash, and admitted: "It's a shame, you never like to see anyone come down.

"I hope that didn’t actually affect me winning or losing.

"It would have been nice to have a clean run for everybody and there be no question marks over my gold medal."

Wright, ranked fifth after 8.8km, timed his race to perfection, with his 5:50.30 split from 32.8km to 37.4km the best performance in the closing stage of the time trial.

He finished 26.28 behind Dennis, while Thomas, in the bronze medal position, was 28.49 adrift.

Fourth-placed Aaron Gate of New Zealand, a winner of three track cycling golds at Birmingham 2022, was some way further back with a time of 48:43.28.

Road cycling at Birmingham 2022 concludes on Sunday (August 7) with the women's and men's road races.