1. Kurt Asle Arvesen (Nor) 3.46.28 (42,920 km/h) 2. Oscar Freira (Spa) 3. Gerrit Glomser (Aut) 4. Rene Haselbacher (Aut) 5. Andrej Hauptman (Slo) 6. Danilo Di Luca (Ita) 7. Francisco Mancebo (Spa) 8. Serguei Borodoulin (Blr) 9. Salvatore Commesso (Ita) 10. Raivis Belohvosciks (Let) 11. Igor Pugac (Mol) 12. Marlon Alirio Perez Arango (Col) 13. Magnus Albertsson (Swe) 14. Benoit Joachim (Lux) 15. Paolo Bossoni (Ita) 16. Dalibor Grebeci (Svk) 17. Andy Engels (Ned) 18. Miguel Meza (Mex) 19. Arkadiusz Wojtas (Pol) 20. Nuno Marta (Por) all s.t.
He proved too fast for Spain's Oscar Freire and Austrian bronze medallist Gerrit Glomser with the best Italian, Danilo di Luca, sixth as 52 riders sprinted for the line.
Last year Italy had filled the first four places in Lugano and were shaping up for a similar show as the 162 kms race entered its final phase.
Giulano Figueras, who won gold in 1996, finished six seconds behind the new champion.
Arvesen, who has won in South Africa and Italy this year, said: ``I expected the Italians to make a decisive move on the final climb. Then I realised that they could not make it work, so I stayed calm and waited for my chance. I am a sprinter so it was great for me.
``I have an offer to turn professional for a Danish team, but I am expecting more after this victory.''
It was only Norway's second world road race title. Their first came in the 1994 women's championship when Monica Valvik won in Sicily.
1. FIGUERAS Giulano ITA 2. COMMESSO Salvatore ITA 3. MALBERTI Fabio ITA 4. MASON Oscar ITA 5. BOSSONI Paolo ITA 6. TRENTIN Guido ITA 7. DI LUCA Danilo ITA 8. BENCIK Petr CZE 9. SOSENKA Ondrej CZE 10. FALTUS Richard CZE 11. BERGMANN Reto SUI 12. FRAGNIERE Cédric SUI 13. HAYMOZ Yvan SUI 14. MONTGOMERY Sven SUI 15. STRAUSS Marcel SUI 16. PARRA PINTO Ivan Ramiro COL 17. PEREZ ARANGO Marlon Alirio COL 18. GONZALEZ MARTINEZ Fredy COL 19. CASTANEDA RAMOS Luis Oran COL 20. BONILLA SANCHEZ Hernan D. COL 21. RAMIREZ Oved Yesid COL 22. BELZILE Guillaume CAN 23. WALTERS Mark CAN 24. KLOEDEN Andreas GER 25. LOEW Holger GER 26. NITSCHE Thorsten GER 27. SCHRECK Stephan GER 28. TRUMHELLER Harry GER 29. MOUKHINE Andrei RUS 30. NITCHIPOURENKO Boris RUS 31. MENCHOV Denis RUS 32. KORNATOV Alexandre RUS 33. DEMENTIEV Dmitri RUS 34. SORENSEN Nicki DEN 35. RASMUSSEN Jacob Moe DEN 36. PETERSEN Dani DEN 37. FREIRE GOMEZ Oscar ESP 38. JIMENEZ Eladio ESP 39. MANZEBO Francisco ESP 40. REQUEJO DOMINGUEZ Eligio ESP 41. ZUBELDIA AGIRRE Haimar ESP 42. MITCHELL Stuart NZL 43. GUYTON Scott NZL 44. MURRAY Karl NZL 45. DAY Brett NZL 46. AUGER Guillaume FRA 47. BERGES Stéphane FRA 48. PLOUHINEC Samuel FRA 49. CASPER Jimmy FRA 50. LAMOULLER Loïc FRA 51. FALTHEIMER Werner AUT 52. GLOMSER Gerrit AUT 53. GRABNER Bernd AUT 54. HASELBACHER René AUT 55. SUMMER Jochen AUT 56. BERGANT Leon SLO 57. HAUPTMAN Andrej SLO 58. KRIZNAR Tadej SLO 59. VALJAVEC Tadej SLO 60. MUGERLI Kristjan SLO 61. DENHAM Kris AUS 62. GONO Marcel AUS 63. HAYMAN Mathew AUS 64. KESTLE Wayne AUS 65. TRINNE Daniel AUS 66. VERMAUT Steve BEL 67. DANIELS Davy BEL 68. DE WAELE Bert BEL 69. VEREECKE Karel BEL 70. CAPELLE Ludovic BEL 71. DE SOUZA Glauber BRA 72. VLADIR Lermen BRA 73. RITTER Samuel LIE 74. VRIES Pieter NED 75. VAN KESSEL Miquel NED 76. VAN MELIS Angelo NED 77. ENGELS Andy NED 78. BRUINSMA Johan NED 79. ZIVKOVIC Milan YUG 80. GAJICIC Sasa YUG 81. NIKACEVIC Alexandar YUG 82. BELOHVOSCIKS Raivis LAT 83. ALBERTSSON Magnus SWE 84. GÜLER Mustafa TUR 85. KIPIK Hakan TUR 86. BODROGI Laszlo HUN 87. SZEKERES Csaba HUN 88. SIPOCZ David HUN 89. ISTLSTEKKER Janos HUN 90. KHALILOV Mykhaylo UKR 91. KOROLEV Andrei UKR 92. AVDEEV Serguei UKR 93. POSPEEV Kirill UKR 94. ARVESEN Kurt-Asle NOR 95. FLESJA Kenneth NOR 96. GUNDERSEN Gert-Magne NOR 97. RASCH Gabriel NOR 98. COTAR Martin CRO 99. POCRNJA Sime CRO 100. CABALLERO OSPINA Edgar VEN 101. MEZA Miguel MEX 102. VALENZUELA Christian MEX 103. FROSSASCO Oswaldo Ariel ARG 104. TOLEDO Gustave Mario ARG 105. MOYANO Luis Ministro ARG 106. MARTA Nuno POR 107. SOUSA Rui POR 108. SILVA Renato POR 109. LUCIO Hugo POR 110. CLINGER David USA 111. VANDEVELDE Christian USA 112. PELUSI Seth USA 113. PAGE Jonathan USA 114. BECKER Max LUX 115. JOACHIM Benoît LUX 116. KIRCHEN Kim LUX 117. POOS Christian LUX 118. VANACKER Marc LUX 119. WILKES Paul GBR 120. QUINN Sam GBR 121. CLARKE Justine GBR 122. WEGELIUS Charles GBR 123. WEST Phil GBR 124. LOUBSER Kosie RSA 125. BESTER Morne RSA 126. WENTZEL Rudolf RSA 127. HUNTER Robert RSA 128. GEORGE David RSA 129. SLOBODNIK Ondrej SVK 130. GREBECI Dalibor SVK 131. RISKA Martin SVK 132. DUFF Aidan IRL 133. FINNEGAN Dermot IRL 134. MCNENA Michael IRL 135. MORIARTY Patrick IRL 136. POWER Ciaran IRL 137. KOMATSU Makoto JPN 138. NODERA Hidenori JPN 139. TAKAHASHI Shusaku JPN 140. SENIOUCHKINE Evgueni BLR 141. BORODOULIN Serguei BLR 142. PUGAC Igor MLD 143. PRIPA Ivan MLD 144. ABD EL FATTAH Mohamed EGY 145. EL NADI Amar EGY 146. FADEL Hossny EGY 147. ORAS Allan EST 148. MANDOJA Innar EST 149. TOMBAK Janek EST 150. KAZMIERCZAK Rafal POL 151. RADOSZ Robert POL 152. WOJTAS Arkadiusz POL 153. WOLSKI Sebastian POL