Individual Pursuit world record holder Ashton Lambie took the rainbow jersey in the event at the UCI Track World Championships in Roubaix on Friday.

Lambie, 30, who became the first man to break the four-minute barrier in the 4-kilometer event in Mexico in August, set the top time in the qualifying round to set up a final showdown with Italy's Jonathan Milano, with Filippo Ganna and Claudio Imhoff of Switzerland vying for bronze.

The qualifying rounds were.

Lambie, who had beaten Milano by 2.548 seconds in the qualifying, took the lead again in the final after four hours. However, a 4:05.060 ride put him 1:089 seconds ahead of Milan, and Lambie, from Nebraska, took the gold medal.

"We went out on the same schedule," Lambie said of his winning ride after scoring the win.

"The time doesn't matter, I'm just competing against second place."

Lambie and Milano were barely separated at the halfway point after the Italians had pulled ahead in the early stages; after 3,000 meters, Lambie had a 0.5 second lead. [With 1.5 kilometers to go, he was 0.4 seconds ahead. 'Then it widened, just like in qualifying. It was great."

The result is a turnaround from last year's Berlin World Championships, where Lambie faced Ganna in the final, but missed out on the silver medal by 4.163 seconds in 4:08.048.

The rainbow jersey is Lambie's latest achievement in cycling; in 2018 and 2019, he set the world record for individual pursuit three times in Mexico and Bolivia, which he later took back in August after Ganna took it from him.

He has also won American and Pan American titles in this discipline, while away from the smooth boards of the track, he won the unbound gravel 100 in 2019.

"I'm speechless again," Lambie posted on Instagram on Friday.