In the shadow of the Great Wall of China seven weeks ago, Nicole Cooke did not lift her hands in celebration when she claimed Olympic gold in the women’s road race. But in Italy on Saturday, a joyful Cooke crossed the finish line, arms spread wide, to secure her first elite world road-race title.

Cooke’s victory at the Road World Championships in Varese was the crowning achievement in a remarkable year for her, for British Cycling and for Dave Brailsford, its talismanic performance director.

Brailsford, whose golden touch has made him almost as hot a property in cycling as Lance Armstrong, described Cooke’s win as “brilliant for Nicole and the rest of the team. We really are a force to be reckoned with now.”

The 25-year-old’s win, the longest-awaited victory in a career laden with medal-winning performances, encapsulated the quantum leap in expectations made by Brailsford’s athletes this season.

On the track, Great Britain is the leading nation and in women’s road racing Cooke and her colleagues now appear to have the tactical upper hand over their rivals. The unfailingly ambitious Brailsford now has the Tour de France in his sights.

In China, teamwork had been the key to Cooke’s success. Saturday’s setting may have been less spectacular, but the collective performance was just as impressive, as Cooke, supported by Emma Pooley, Sharon Laws, Lizzie Armitstead and Jessica Allen, her Britain teammates, held off the best efforts of Marianne Vos, of the Netherlands.

“I’m very happy and very proud with what I achieved today,” Cooke said. “I was very relaxed because I had won at the Olympics and that was the big objective of the year. We had a nice team plan, nothing too complicated. We just wanted to try our best, do what we could as the race developed and give it everything in the finale.”

Cooke’s success contrasted with Team GB’s fortunes in yesterday’s men’s race, however, in which only Russell Downing was able to finish. The world title fell to Alessandro Ballan, of Italy, with Damiano Cunego, his compatriot, finishing second and Matti Breschel, of Denmark, taking the bronze medal.

- Lance Armstrong’s comeback in January 2009 seems to have stalled after the International Cycling Union (UCI) indicated that it would insist that the Texan comply with a rule demanding that riders are registered with an anti-doping programme for at least six months before racing.

Armstrong plans to race at the Tour Down Under in Australia but his failure to have six months of testing under the “biological passport” scheme may count against him. “I don’t know on what date Armstrong asked to be registered on the programme, but the UCI will apply these rules, regardless of the athlete,” Pat McQuaid, the UCI president, said.

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