Olympic golden girls Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell were again on song as they helped Britain set a team pursuit world record for the second time in a fortnight at the Manchester velodrome.
Dani King and Elinor Barker combined superbly with Trott and Rowsell to clock 4:23.910 at an average speed of nearly 55 km/h and set up a UCI Track World Cup gold-medal shoot-out against Canada later on Friday.
The home favourites, who clinched the world title in Minsk in February and became European champions in the new four-rider format in the Netherlands two weeks ago, bettered their own world record from last month by over two seconds.
Canada were more than four seconds behind the British speed machine while Australia and Russia will meet for bronze.
The British male quartet clocked the day’s first and only sub four-minute time of 3:59.672, a distant eight seconds slower than the world record set at the 2012 London Olympics.
Nevertheless the rainbow jerseys of world champions Australia, fielding a brand new team, were never able to keep up with the British pace and posted a time of 4:01.491 to set up the expected yet much-anticipated final also in the evening session.
European neighbours Denmark and the Netherlands will battle it out for the bronze medal after good runs from both teams.
There was disappointment for Jason Kenny, Kian Emadi-Coffin and Philip Hindes however in the men’s team sprint after the trio lost their heat against the Russians, who made the final.
Germany cruised into the gold medal tussle after a fantastic opening lap from Robert Forstemann while New Zealand will seek to upset the home fans in the bronze race.
World and Olympic champions Germany were quickest in the women’s team sprint and will clash with Britain in the final while Russia take on Max Success Pro Cycling in the third-place fight.
Australia’s Luke Davison took the early honours in the six-event omnium with a flying lap of 13.105 seconds, beating the Netherlands’ Tim Veldt to top spot while Briton Jonathan Dibben was fifth-quickest.
London 2012 gold medallist King followed up her good work in the pursuit and rounded off the day session by easing into the women’s scratch race final.
© Sportsbeat 2013