Joanna Rowsell, Dani King and Laura Trott twice smashed the world record as they won the team pursuit gold at the Track Worlds.
Pendleton eases into semi-finals of the women's sprint
Great Britain won a second team pursuit duel with Australia in two days at the Track Cycling World Championships as Joanna Rowsell, Dani King and Laura Trott set two world records at the Hisense Arena in Melbourne.
After the men triumphed on day one, Britain's women also improved their own world record entering the final competition before August's London Olympics track programme - but the 2.428-second improvement means they must now revise their Games goal after going faster sooner than anticipated.
Rowsell, King and Trott clocked three minutes 15.720 seconds to ensure Britain have now won four of the five titles since the three-kilometre event was incorporated into the World Championships programme in 2008.
Australia's Annette Edmondson, Melissa Hoskins and Josephine Tomic were second in 3mins 16.943secs, with Canada third ahead of New Zealand in an event which will make its Olympic debut in London.
The 21-year-old King and 19-year-old Trott now have two world titles from two attempts, while Rowsell, who missed out on selection in 2011 following illness and injury, is a three-time world champion after reclaiming the prized rainbow jersey she most recently won in 2009 in Pruszkow.
On top of the world
The 23-year-old Rowsell, from Cheam, said: "I can't believe I'm world champion again - it's been three years. I so badly wanted that rainbow jersey back.
"We're surprised how fast we've ridden here - we might need to adjust our targets now.
"We knew we were going to have to break the world record to win today - we didn't quite know how much by. (Three minutes) 15 (seconds) is great.
"We didn't think we'd see this time til August. We need to rethink a bit there."
Rowsell was reserve in Apeldoorn and believes Wendy Houvenaghel, the 37-year-old world champion from 2008, 2009 and 2011, remains in the selection mix ahead of London despite being a spectator this time.
"We're all going to keep getting faster and faster," added Rowsell, whose assertion was backed up by coach Paul Manning.
"I'm sure she'll stay with us and keep getting faster as well. Hopefully we'll be invincible by the Olympics."
Intense rivalry
The rivalry intensified in training prior to this week's racing as Britain and Australia each improved upon the world record of 3:18.148 set by Rowsell, King and Trott at February's London Track World Cup.
While Australia may have resorted to subterfuge to find out how Britain's men were training, British Cycling head coach Shane Sutton and his brother Gary, coach to Australia's women, merely shared the information.
Manning did not pass on the news on to his team, but they had guessed.
Trott said: "We had an inkling that they'd done something. Our coach was pushing the tenths (of a second). I was like: 'He's heard something we don't know'."
Australia were first to officially break the mark, clocking 3:17.053 in qualifying before Britain went faster still in 3:16.850 to set up the final decider.
As Britain started steadily, the hosts set the early pace in the final and led by almost 1.5 seconds before a phenomenal last kilometre - including a two-lap turn at the front from Trott - saw Britain win by 1.233secs.
Trott said: "We knew we had to go quicker after the London World Cup.
"We wanted to beat them on their home soil, especially before the Olympics. It puts out a strong message.
"They've got to beat us now - at our home."
Composure was integral to the victory, according to King.
She said: "They were about a second and a half up - that's quite a lot - but the key for us was we managed to sustain our speed that we had in the first six laps in the second six laps. That ultimately won us the race."
Trott is now poised to compete in the six-event omnium, which begins on Friday.
"I'm sure I'll be all right," she added. "(But) not many people do a two-lap turn at a (three minutes) 15 (seconds) pace."
King, meanwhile, is set to compete in the non-Olympic 10km (40 laps) scratch race on day three.
Mixed fortunes in sprint
In the women's sprint, Victoria Pendleton advanced to the semi-finals, where she will meet old adversary Anna Meares of Australia.
The Olympic champion qualified fifth fastest as Meares, the defending world champion, set a world record for the flying start over 200 metres of 10.782 seconds. Pendleton clocked 11.076secs.
Meares then beat Colombia's Juliana Gaviria, the 24th and final qualifier, comfortably in her first head-to-head bout to progress and then eased past Cuba's Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez.
Pendleton met Yvonne Hijgenaar of Holland in the first knockout round and edged through by a wheel length.
Pendleton then led from the front against Junhong Lin to progress at the first time of asking, with the Chinese rider falling into the repechage.
All the favourites then obliged 2-0 in their quarter-final matches, with Pendleton seeing off Virginie Cueff of France.
She'll now take on Meares, while Simona Krupeckaite faces Lyubov Shulika.
The Briton's team-mate Jess Varnish, eighth quickest in qualifying in 11.090, was eliminated by Junhong in the first round.
In the six-event omnium, Britain's Ed Clancy, fresh from his team pursuit gold and world record, is third at the halfway mark on 18 points eight behind Aussie Glenn O'Shea.
Clancy won the flying lap, placed seventh in the points race and 10th in the elimination race to be in the medal hunt with three disciplines remaining.
Steven Burke, who won team pursuit gold alongside Clancy on day one, was 10th in the non-Olympic one-kilometre time-trial, clocking 1:02.180 as Germany's Stefan Nimke took gold in 1:00.082.
First for Ireland
Meanwhile Caroline Ryan, a policewoman from County Kildare, today won the first Track Cycling World Championship medal in Ireland's history.
The 32-year-old former rower claimed bronze in the women's points race behind gold medal winner Anastasia Chulkova of Russia at Melbourne's Hisense Arena.
"It's amazing," said Ryan, who took part in a talent transfer programme at the end of the rowing season in 2008.
"I got hooked as soon as I got on the track, I just loved it."
Ryan was initially placed in the Irish para-cycling squad as a pilot in the tandem event with partially-sighted rider Catherine Walsh, and won pursuit silver in the World Championships in Manchester in 2009.
This result was a remarkable feat for a team with a 100,000 euro budget, whose riders have contributed to their costs for Melbourne and train in Newport, south Wales, due to there being only two outdoor tracks in Ireland.
To achieve it in the points race - a tactical 100-lap (25 kilometre) event, featuring 10 sprints - is even more extraordinary.
Like the three-kilometre individual pursuit in which Ryan excels, the event was removed from the Olympics after Beijing in 2008.
The omnium was deemed unsuitable, so Ryan's hopes focus on the road race and the time-trial in London.
Ryan, who paid tribute to coach Brian Nugent for her success, added: "Time-trialling is what I specialise in on the road, but the road race too, I've got experience in bunch racing.
"I've got the pursuit on Sunday first off."
