Great Britain's women's team pursuit quartet set a new world record at the second round of the UCI Track World Cup in Aguascalientes, Mexico, on Thursday.
Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker, Dani King and Joanna Rowsell had broken their own world record - set in Manchester in November - during qualifying, only to promptly break it again during the gold medal final against Canada. It was a perfect gift to Rowsell, celebrating her 25th birthday.
The GB women's time of 4:16.552 was only 4.8 seconds off the qualification time set by the Italian men's team. What is more remarkable is that the British quartet included the relatively inexperienced Archibald and Barker - Laura Trott sat out the team pursuit in favour of riding the points race, and the omnium starting today (Friday).
The GB men's team pursuit line-up of Owain Doull, Steven Burke, Jon Dibben and Sam Harrison qualified third fastest, and won the bronze medal ride off against New Zealand. Australia beat Denmark for gold.
It was a day of new world records at the Aguascalientes velodrome, as riders took advantage of the conditions offered by the venue's high altitude.
Germany continued its dominance of the team sprint disciplines, with both men's and women's teams setting new world records. Both teams set new best times in qualification, where Mirian Welte and Kristina Vogel clocked 32.153 and Robert Forstemann, Rene Enders and Joachim Eilers set a time of 41.871.
Germany also came away with gold in the women's points race, where Stephanie Pohl gained a lap on the rest of the field to take the victory. Trott finished in 11th place.
Ed Clancy started the men's omnium well, placing first in the flying lap. However, things did not go well for Clancy in the following points and elimination races where he came 13th and 16th after a crash to find himself 11th in the overnight leaderboard. Australian Luke Davison tops the table going into the final three events - individual pursuit, scratch race and time trial.
Remaining finals
Friday, December 6
Women's 500m time trial
Women's individual pursuit
Men's omnium final round
Men's scratch race
Women's keirin
Men's sprint
Saturday, December 7
Men's kilometre time trial
Women's omnium final
Men's Madison
Men's keirin
Women's sprint
Related links
Track World Cup round two preview
'There's still some room for improvement' - Tadej Pogačar thinks he can get even better in 2025
Patrick Lefevere to step down as Soudal Quick-Step boss
