The New Zealand women's pursuit team have claimed the silver medal at the UCI World Cup in France.
In Saturday's final (NZ time), Kirstie James, Holly Edmondston, Rushlee Buchanan and Bryony Both lost out to Australia, who claimed gold by 0.6s.
Australia opened the narrowest of margins after the first 1000m, but just a blink of the eye separated the two at 2000m, with the gap at only 0.7s at 3000m.
The Kiwi quartet almost chased down the Australians in an exciting final four laps, but had to settle for second. Their time of 4m 17.560s broke the New Zealand record, bettering the previous time set at the Rio Olympics.
Buchanan praised the culture shift for their success around the track.
"It is a really good starting point," said "We are a fresh team and not tapered.
"It is the first time this group has ridden together and while we had a few hiccups in the first two rides, we were calm and collected today.
"It is a testament to the work we have been doing and importantly, the culture we have been creating. The benefit of that came out in the final, when we laid it down and had a ride we could be proud of."
The news wasn't as pleasing for the men's team sprint, as Sam Webster's foot unclipped from the pedal during their race.
The team were looking to build on their win at the Oceania Championships a week ago, but suffered from mechanical vagaries to railroad their World Cup start.
They had a false start in their qualifying ride and in the re-run, Webster's foot slipped out of the pedal. With teams only entitled to one re-run, he had to continue, re-clipping, but losing nearly 20m to the flying Ethan Mitchell on first wheel.
Webster attempted to recover and Eddie Dawkins put in the fastest third-lap effort of all riders, but the combination could only manage 45.153s to finish 12th fastest of the 15 teams.
Elsewhere, the men's team pursuit were beaten by Olympic champions Great Britain in their first round, after the top six teams were separated by one second in qualifying, while the Kiwi women's team sprint finished an impressive fourth.
Day three action will see Natasha Hansen and Emma Cumming in the individual sprint, Dawkins in the keirin and Nick Kergozou in the omnium, with Racquel Sheath and Michaela Drummond in the Madison.
Newshub.
