Valente maintains golden start for USA at World Championships
The Olympic omnium champion picked a path through the pack to launch her victory sprint on the 40th and final circuit of the Chris Hoy Velodrome and held on for gold.
Dutch rider Maike van der Duin was second with New Zealand's Michaela Drummond third.
Germany's women have also begun the championships impressively on the boards with sprinter Emma Hinze claiming a second gold medal in two days with a powerful ride in the 500m time trial, pipping Australia's Kristina Clonan.
Clonan was seeking to become the first Australian to win the world title in the discipline since Anna Meares in 2012.
Hinze won the women's team sprint the day before in a world record time - Germany's fourth world title in succession at that discipline - and now has eight world titles.
Valente now has six world golds in her collection and the Californian showed why on Friday with superb ride.
The previous night Chloe Dygert had outclassed the individual pursuit field to win her first world gold since 2020.
"There were a couple of riders off the front with a decent gap until a couple of laps to go," Valente, who will join Dygert in the women's team pursuit medal round on Saturday against New Zealand, told reporters.
"I was just trying to find a gap and set up my sprint. This is really the best possible way we could have opened these championships."
The Dutch men reclaimed their world title in the men's team sprint as they avenged the loss last year to Australia which snapped their four-year domination.
Olympic champion threesome Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland trailed slightly over the first two laps but Hoogland's last lap burst brought home the gold.
This year's UCI World Championships is the first ever to combine all the cycle disciplines and the para events.
Britain's para cyclists delighted the home crowd on Friday with a gold rush, led by Jody Cundy in the men's C4 1km time trial. The 44-year-old, who had his right foot amputated when he was three, has now won an incredible 14 world kilo titles.
He said racing on the same programme at the same time as the Olympic athletes was a massive step forward.
"It's fabulous to be part of the Olympic guys programme and to show the world what we can do," Cundy told reporters.
"One or two of these fans may have never seen para cycling before but that's one or two that we've never had before."
Britain's Neil Fachie and pilot Matthew Rotherham beat team mates James Ball and Steffan Lloyd in the men's B (visually impaired) 1km time trial while Jaco van Gass won the C3 1km time trial and Sophie Unwin, piloted by Jenny Holl, won the B individual pursuit.
Saturday's finals include the men's team pursuit final with Denmark facing Italy in a repeat of the Tokyo Olympics final which Italy won in a thriller.
