Jessica Allen handed Australia a flying start to this year's world road cycling championships in Copenhagen, Denmark by taking out the junior women's time trial.

The Perth-based cyclist was last to start the 13.9 kilometer race against the clock from a field of 39 and posted a winning time of 19 minutes and 18.63 seconds.

The 18-year-old edged out Great Britain's Elinor Barker by just under two seconds in the opening event of the championships.

"I can't believe it," race winner Allen said and continued "Last year finishing the world championships 11th I really wanted to come into this year doing bigger and better things and take the gold medal.

"I've been doing this for a while and all the hard work's paid off."

Allen said the course used for the under-19 competition in the Danish capital had played into her hands.

"I really like the course," she said and added "Dead flat but nice and technical, which worked to my strengths."

Allen found her coach Donna Rae-Szalinski's advice on the course to have been critical.

"We only got to ride it once yesterday, we were not really familiar with it," Allen said and coninued "So Donna was telling me which corners were coming up and which ones were flowing and which ones were tight and that really helped me."

Allen was looking forward to joining forces with compatriots Jessica Mundy and Allison Rice for Friday's 70km junior women's road race in Denmark.

"I think we're going to a have a really good crack on Friday," she said.

"The finish suits us down to the ground."

The first day of the seven-day event on Monday concludes with the under-23 men's time trial.

Watch video highlights from the 2011 road cycling world championships in Copenhagen in the video section at http://www.roadcycling.com/video here on Roadcycling.com.