The Australian men's team pursuit squad face a fierce challenge from world champions and Anzac rivals New Zealand in their race for gold at the cycling world championships in London.
The team of Sam Welsford, Michael Hepburn, Alexander Porter and Miles Scotson produced a superb opening ride of the event on Wednesday, posting the second-fastest qualifying time to put themselves firmly in contention for gold on Thursday (Friday morning AEDT).
The quartet scorched the London velodrome in a time of 3 minutes 55.867 seconds - bettered only by the powerful Great Britain team, led by six-time world champion Sir Bradley Wiggins, who edged Australia in a time of 3 minutes 55.664 seconds.
"I think we had a good ride, certainly for a qualifying ride it was quick," said Hepburn.
Of Great Britain, Hepburn said: "It's the home worlds, they're going to get pretty gee'd up for it.
He added that Australia would need to lift their game in order to first get past New Zealand, who they will face in the first semi final on Thursday afternoon, before potentially taking on either Great Britain or Italy in the final for gold in the evening.
"(Great Britain) just showed us what they can do (and) at the end of the day they were still quicker than us in the qualifying," he said.
"But we've got six guys here and I was really happy with how the four guys rode today.
"We executed our plan and we're going to have different plans tomorrow, but I'm confident in these guys and I'm looking forward to the second day."
New Zealand produced a stunning upset of Great Britain to win world championships gold in Paris 12 months ago but their time of 3 minutes 57.050 seconds fell a full second behind Australia's effort and they appeared to leave plenty in the tank for the second day of competition.
Certainly Hepburn felt their trans-Tasman rivals would be a more formidable foe than the qualifying times suggested.
"It will be a tough semi-final that's for sure," he said.
"I think we're around one second faster than the Kiwis there but they'll put up a good fight.
"We raced them a couple of months ago at the World Cup, they're a good team, world champions last year and I think they'll be going a lot quicker tomorrow.
"We've just got to execute a plan tomorrow in the semi-final and then hopefully we can look forward to (the final)."
