Peter Kennaugh, Geraint Thomas and Ben Swift all won gold medals for Team GB on a memorable opening day of the Track World Championships in Melbourne.
Kennaugh and Thomas helped the team pursuit squad post a world record time to edge a titanic tussle with arch rivals Australia while Swift became Britain's first-ever men's scratch race world champion.
In the four-man, four-kilometre event Kennaugh, Thomas, Ed Clancy and Steven Burke - in for Andy Tennant, who was part of the qualifying effort - clocked three minutes 53.295 seconds as Britain claimed a first world title in the event since Manchester in 2008.
Australia's Glenn O'Shea, Jack Bobridge, Rohan Dennis and Michael Hepburn were second in 3mins 53.401secs, just outside the previous world record - 3mins 53.314secs set by Britain in winning Olympic gold in Beijing almost four years ago.
Britain had set the then third-fastest time in history in qualifying and Australia recorded the fifth best to set up the eagerly-anticipated showdown.
The duel in the final only served to whet the appetite for August's Olympic Games track programme as the lead appeared to changed hands each half lap before Britain powered away in the closing stages to triumph.
The world champions in 2004 and 2008 went on to win the Olympics so this latest win is a significant omen.
Surprise
"I didn't think we'd ride that time," said Thomas, who was part of the Olympic-winning team in 2008 and has excelled on the road for Team Sky but misses the Tour de France this year to focus on London.
"I am surprised that we broke the world record.
"It was only in the last few days that we thought 'we're going to get close to this'. It's a great day."
Perfect finish
And the day got even better when Swift took a dramatic scratch race, with Nolan Hoffman of South Africa second and Wim Stroetinga of Holland third.
Swift was alert and in the mix throughout and though a big move mid-race looked likely to split the field for good, it all came back together with 23 laps to go.
Austria's Andreas Mueller, who had been aggressive throughout the race, then made a huge move with seven laps to go and with the field hesitating, Italy's Elia Viviani was the only rider to chase.
Swift then pulled off a brilliant move, bridging rapidly to the tiring duo ahead and then going it alone with a lap to go, just holding off the main field as they charged towards the line.
