Britain’s team pursuit quartet signalled their intentions with a pulsating display of pedal power at the Laoshan Velodrome.
The team of Ed Clancy, Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins (Chorley) set a world record to qualify for the final.
The quartet overhauled their opponents, Russia, and then went on to set a new world benchmark of 3:55.202 – taking 1.117 seconds off the old best, which was set by the same quartet as they won the world championships in Manchester in March.
Afterwards Matt Parker, GB Team Pursuit Coach, said: “We planned to break the world record. We expected to have to do it tomorrow, but we had to step up, and hats off to the lads for putting it together.
“It’s no great secret, it’s just athletes who are willing to compete,” he added. “We just work extremely hard and we have a talented bunch of athletes. We just give the athletes the environment in which to excel.”
The quartet take on Denmark in the gold medal contest at around 18.15 Chinese local time on Monday.
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