Handing his coveted world title to countryman Alessandro Ballan was the second-best send-off Italian great Paolo Bettini could have wished for, he admitted here Sunday.

The only thing better would have been to keeping the rainbow jersey he won in 2006 and 2007, thus becoming only the fifth rider in history to win the world title three times.

Ballan, a tall and lanky 28-year-old who won last year's Tour of Flanders, succeeded the diminutive Bettini as the new world champion after a thrilling 260.2km race which proved to be the 34-year-old Bettini's swansong.

It left hosts Italy with more than one reason to feel emotional, but Bettini — who announced his retirement a day prior to his final race — was confident he was leaving the jersey in good hands.

"I feared last night that announcing my retirement would have shook the team up a bit. But that wasn't the case," said Bettini, who finished 28th after giving up the chase of a leading group of riders during the final laps.

Riding home in the company of some of the men who have been his fiercest rivals of the past decade, Bettini admitted it had been an emotional day in more ways than one.

"In the last few kilometers I was really touched by what some of my rivals were saying to me, especially (Spanish rival) Alejandro Valverde," he added.

"If I'd won it would have been sublime, but I'm leaving the rainbow jersey in good hands. I tried to escape a few times today, but too many riders just kept following me wheel."

Bettini, who won the 2004 Olympic crown only to hand that title to Spaniard Samuel Sanchez in Beijing, is one of the most decorated one-day riders of the past decade.

Bettini not alone

But he was not alone in lighting up the competition this week, nor the last to decide it was time to call it a day.

While some riders, such as under-23 men's champion Fabio Andres Duarte of Colombia are hoping to get their career off the ground, others are winding it down.

German sprinter Erik Zabel, a former six-time winner of the Tour de France's green jersey for the points competition, also announced it would be his final world championships race.

He will retire at the end of the season.

"I've had a lot of fun this season and managed to keep my main rivals on their toes. But I don't know if I can do it for another season, so I think it's the right time to stop," Zabel said.

Zabel, a 12-stage winner at the Tour de France and four-time winner of Milan-San Remo, will compete for the last time in Munster, Germany on October 3.

In the women's competition Britain's Nicole Cooke, who triumphed in Beijing, finally grabbed world road race gold after years of picking up podium places.

After a thrilling finish to the 138.8 km race, held over eight laps of an undulating circuit, Cooke showed why she is one of the greatest women cyclists of modern times by beating Dutch rival Marianne Vos at the finish line.

"I think it will take a long time for this achievement to sink in," said Cooke, the first woman to win a world and Olympic road race title in the same year.

"After achieving my main objective of the season in Beijing we started the race very relaxed and today I just tried to do my best.

"At the end of the race I decided I would give everything I had all the way to the finish line, and that's exactly what I did."