KEY POINTS:
Ten days out from the Beijing Olympics, four cyclists donned brand new, space-age racing suits and pedalled their way around a French velodrome.
They were in the city of Bordeaux fine-tuning New Zealand's audacious campaign for an Olympic medal in the 4000m team pursuit. Their goal for this session was a so-called "flying kilo", a timed run over one kilometre with a rolling start.
Track cycling coach Tim Carswell stood on the inside of the circuit watching as the men in black let rip. When the clock stopped, he could not believe his eyes. It had taken just 54s flat, the best time they had recorded by a long shot.
"We knew then that they were on [for a medal]," Carswell said this week. The time was astounding. But what was more eye-opening was the fact that it was not even the top team. Hayden Roulston and Marc Ryan, two of the four riders who this week claimed bronze in Beijing, were sitting out the session.
It says volumes about the depth in New Zealand's track endurance programme.
Roulston, who this week became New Zealand's first double Olympic medal-winning track cyclist, and Ryan are the old men on the pursuit team, at just 27 and 25.
The other two riders who won medals in the pursuit team, Sam Bewely and Jesse Sergent, are 21 and 20.
Peter Latham, 24, and Westley Gough, 20, were also in Beijing as members of the squad.
And Carswell says that back home in New Zealand there are a handful of other riders who could lay claim to places on the team too.
New Zealand track cycling has never seen it so good. And it is the young age of many of the riders which has Carswell most excited.
"It's pretty well known that for cyclists they're only hitting their peak heading into their late 20s, maybe even into their early 30s. So for these guys to be doing what they're doing when they're 20 is unbelievable. We do a lot of monitoring of their power and some of the power they are producing is just incredible."
The goal is gold. And plenty of it.
Roulston, whose performance is likely to invite pro team offers leading him back to the road tours of Europe, is keen to stay on the track through to the London OIympics. "I love the track and I love being part of the team," Roulston said.
"We've got the squad to do basically anything we want, we'll be on the dais quicker than that [London] _ there're four world championships before then."
Bike New Zealand is investigating ways to keep the riders together and part of the New Zealand cycling programme rather than being snaffled up by European teams.
Carswell says Bike NZ would like to set up a semi-professional team based in Belgium or Holland where the riders would be paid and have a road racing programme catered towards making them fast on the track.
"We'd like to see that happen over a period of years heading towards 2012," says Carswell. "One of the big things that is going to keep them in track rather than pro teams is ... they get an income, they get a really good racing programme and plus they get to race with all their mates."
Carswell says he is also eager to bring young riders up through the ranks and to find new talent.
"Our next big programme is women's track endurance. We've got some very, very talented lasses there in the programme already _ multiple junior world medallists over the last few years.
"We'll also be doing a bit of talent identification. We'll probably have a camp based around trying to ID potential female endurance athletes who could go through to 2012."
And he's not just talking cyclists. Already there are examples of non-riders who have switched successfully. Alison Shanks, who finished fourth in the individual pursuit in Beijing, was playing competitive netball and basketball until just three years ago.
NO EASY RIDE
The 20-somethings who snatched bronze in the team pursuit in Beijing this week have an easy ride to the London Olympics, right?
Ah, no. While the foursome who claimed a piece of New Zealand cycling history have a head start, there are a swag of talented youngsters not far off their back wheels, says track cycling elite coach Tim Carswell.
After all, four years ago, Sam Bewley was a Rotorua Boys High schoolboy when he watched Sarah Ulmer win gold at Athens.
Could there be schoolboys or girls out there now who will step up to the dias in 2012? You bet, says Carswell.
"There's a huge amount of talent coming through.
This year's junior worlds was our best-ever where we took six medals and over the last couple of years we've had something like about 20 medals in junior ranks."
