Great Britain's women's team pursuit trio produced a superb performance to win the gold medal at the track cycling World Championships in Netherlands.
Wendy Houvenaghel, 36, took her third title, well supported by Laura Trott, 18, and Dani King, 20, both competing in their first World Championships.
Britain surged clear and finished in three minutes 23.419 seconds with the Americans trailing in 3:25.308.
The team pursuit trio had set the fastest qualifying time with 3:23.642 as King and Trott gelled with Houvenaghel encouragingly. Despite being relatively newly formed the line up still looked strong without the injured Lizzie Armitstead, who had a thigh strain, while regular Joanna Rowsell, multiple paralympic champion Sarah Storey and Olympic champion Rebecca Romero had been overlooked.
Veteran Houvenaghel was delighted with the way her team pulled together. "It's such a relief in some respects but it was a great ride and we worked so well together as a team," she enthused.
"I'm so glad we've come away with the gold medal this time. Everyone brings different attributes to this event, it's a team event, and a mixture of endurance and sprint really works.
"I'm so pleased and it's a real privilege to have ridden with these two girls and get that rainbow jersey again."
King looked ahead with confidence to the London Olympics next year after the impressive victory and added: "I didn't imagine this would happen, it's been a whirlwind for me. I couldn't have done it without the other two, it's fantastic.
"We've been working so hard over the last four or five months, we put everything into it, did our best ride and the result came. It's another step forward to London and 2012."
