Orica-GreenEDGE have won silver in the team time trial at the world championships for the second year running after missing out on gold to surprise winners BMC.
The United States BMC team, including Australia's Rohan Dennis, set a blistering pace around the hilly 57.1km course in north-western Spain to finish in a time of 1hr 3min 29.85secs.
Riding ahead of the main favourites they avoided a late shower to average almost 54km/h in the favourable conditions.
GreenEDGE finished 31 seconds behind BMC but almost four seconds ahead of 2012 and 2013 champions Omega Pharma-Quick Step who claimed bronze.
The Australian outfit was beaten by just 0.8 seconds in the TTT last year and had vowed to turn the tables on the Belgian OPQS team on Sunday.
They did that, just, but hadn't factored in BMC returning to the form that saw them claim silver in 2012.
Dennis is a new addition to the US squad having switched from Garmin-Sharp less than two months ago.
"We always knew we had a chance, we had a good team, a strong team," the Adelaide-born rider said after the race.
"A lot of us were hoping `okay, a podium would be great but the win is still definitely possible', and to pull it off ... is a very good feeling."
Dennis, 24, will be Australia's only rider in the individual time trial on Wednesday.
Britain's Team Sky, led by Sir Bradley Wiggins, finished fourth on Sunday after losing two riders early and struggling in the later stages as a result.
The GreenEDGE team included four Australians: Luke Durbridge, Brett Lancaster, Michael Hepburn and Damien Howson.
It was rounded out by Canadian Svein Tuft and Jens Mouris from the Netherlands.
The six riders worked well as a unit improving their position at every time check along the Ponferrada course - but they couldn't catch BMC.
"They lost a little bit too much time at the start and at this level you just can't lose 20 to 30 seconds," sport director Matt White said.
"Omega and Sky sort of imploded.
"We soldiered on through and came home strong as we knew we would, but we were too far back to threaten for that gold medal."
The silver was Australia's second for the day after the Orica-AIS women's team earlier claimed silver in their event.
That was almost as good as gold given the all-conquering US Specialized-Lululemon team was always going to win if they stayed upright.
"We gave it a good crack, we were able to pull off second and we are absolutely stoked about it," South Australian rider Annette Edmondson said.
Italian-backed Astana finished third in the women's TTT.
Australia is arguably the most dominant nation at the week-long world championships with favourites in the TTT, the under-23 road race and the flagship elite men's road race.
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