KEY POINTS:
BikeNZ high performance manager Mark Elliott's high expectations for New Zealand at the UCI World Cup cycling meeting in Beijing have been comprehensively trumped.
The fledgling women's team pursuit team picked up New Zealand's fourth gold medal yesterday with a superb win over 3000m, clocking 3m 24.421s to beat China at the Laoshan velodrome.
In the process, Alison Shanks, Kaytee Boyd and Lauren Ellis set the second fastest time in the world, despite it being the first time the combination has ridden together.
Only world champions Great Britain, who didn't compete in force at Beijing, have gone faster with a 3:22.425 in Manchester last year.
Earlier in the three-day meeting, Shanks and Jesse Sergent took gold in the women's and men's individual pursuit respectively, while Hayden Godfrey won the scratch race. The men's team pursuit picked up silver.
Elliott said the results were extremely encouraging ahead of the world track cycling championships in Poland in late March.
"It's fantastic to see the whole team perform across the board," said Elliott.
"Even though the world champs are 10 weeks away, it's a good indication that they're at the right fitness level, and they're still developing - they're going to go faster."
Elliott said the World Cup meeting was an important step as cycling geared up towards the 2012 Olympics, and the women's team pursuit had really exceeded expectations.
"They did really, really well - they rode the time we expected of them in the next few weeks in qualifying, and then to go another four seconds faster just shows what time together can do," he said. "It's very early days, but the fact that these girls are riding within two seconds of the world record now when they're so young is particularly exciting."
Elliott said there were also a number of other cyclists in New Zealand pushing to make the team.
"It's very exciting, that level of competition, and it's really going to set our track nationals in February on fire. The female individual pursuit is going to be phenomenal racing."
He said Shanks' outstanding abilities were really starting to come to the fore, and it was particularly satisfying to see youngsters like Ellis, a newcomer to the senior ranks, start to make her mark.
Former mountainbiker Kaytee Boyd, the surprise package from BikeNZ's Power to Podium talent identification programme, had made huge strides since her first outing on a track bike barely three months ago.
"They're very, very mature riders, and they've got great heads on them," Elliott said.
"The most promising thing is we've got the ability to capture the data to know why they've gone so fast. We'll be able to continue to track and develop these girls over the next three years."
BikeNZ's Power to the Podium programme was a starting point to see what could be achieved in London at the 2012 Olympics, with the track world championships in Poland beginning on March 25 an important indicator, Elliott said.
"The goal for our programme in BikeNZ is driven by winning Olympic medals - New Zealand has a raft of talented athletes in a number of sports, and all they require is a good structure behind them."
The New Zealand cycling team's successes to date were a reflection of the quality of staff driving the programme, he said.
"We've got world class support there, and the athletes are just thriving in that environment."
- NZPA
