BERLIN, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Italian rider Paolo Bettini and Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara retained their respective titles at the world road race cycling championships in Stuttgart on Sunday.

For Bettini, the victory came two days after he won a court injunction which sought to ban him for refusing to sign an anti-doping pledge.

Bettini, 33, regained the elite men's road race title he won last year in Salzburg, Austria, having held off a strong challenge from the leading group of five riders in the 267.4-kilometer race.

With Russian Alexandr Kolobnev launching a sprint off the final bend with 250 meters to go, Bettini gave an immediate response and powered through to defend his world title.

Local favourite Stefan Schumacher was third, with Frank Schleck and Australian Cadel Evans just outside the podium spots.

And Cancellara successfully defended his world time-trial crown on Thursday as the 26-year-old Swiss rider took gold in a winning time of 55 minutes 41.35 seconds over the two laps of the 45 kilometers course.

Australia's Wesley Sulzberger held on for silver while bronze went to Britain's Jonathan Bellis.

And earlier in the day Italian Marta Bastianelli upset the favourites to win the elite women's road title with a superb display.

The 20-year-old broke free of the pack in the final 20km to finish ahead of a small group of riders which included reigning champion Marianne Vos of the Netherlands.

Vos finished in second place a few seconds behind with the bronze going to another Italian, Giorgia Bronzini.

Armstrong took silver while Austria's Christiane Soeder took bronze.

Dutchman Lars Boom won the gold in the men's under-23 time-trial.

The 21-year-old, who won the under-23 title at this year's world cyclo-cross championships, completed the 38.1 km course in a time of 48 minutes 57.93 seconds.

Russian Olympic track champion Mikhail Ignatiev, the winner in 2005, was second in 49:06.99 while France's Jerome Coppel claimed his second consecutive time trial bronze in the category in 49:43.52.