Bevin was challenged by Cooper and fellow World Tour professional Jesse Sergent on the first lap, but managed the windy conditions better than his more experienced rivals.
"I knew it was a course that suited me and as the wind picked up, it would suit me more," Bevin said.
"The wind was horrendous and it came up. The second lap, I had some issues with the wind. Coming around that second time was brutal and it became a challenge just to stay on the bike and keep as much momentum as I could."
"If you had a bad day today and you come up that climb for the last time, you could lose 20 or 30 seconds, so it was about being fairly conservative and riding the course where you could," he said.
Bevin will now be considered one of the favourites to win the road race and complete a rare double.
Rushlee Buchanan added the national women's time trial title to her burgeoning list of cycling accomplishments.
She edged two-time defending champion Jaime Nielsen by just over a second with 34m 14.6s in the 23.2km test against the clock to add the time trial title to her national honours in the road race and criterium.
"I definitely didn't expect to win and then I saw my father screaming with maybe 200m to go and I thought it must be pretty close," she said.
She rode 7km further than Nielsen, her track cycling teammate, after taking a wrong turn and riding the men's course before restarting.
"Unfortunately when we started someone wasn't paying attention too much and it was a bit confusing, and we went the wrong way."
"I had to calm down and use that anger and frustration and put it into the pedals," she said.
"I knew I was going to be a little bit faster on the down hills and through the corners so I had to focus on that."
