Australia’s cyclists have enjoyed their first taste of the track for the London Olympics with the men’s pursuit team topping qualifying for Sunday’s final (Monday AM AEDT) of the test event.

The foursome of Jack Bobridge, Rohan Dennis, Alex Edmondson and Michael Hepburn set down a time of 3 minutes and 57.885 seconds in the World Cup round in east London.

The performance topped Britain’s mark of 3:58.446 and pitted the two nations against each other in the gold medal race this weekend.

Meanwhile Australia’s emerging women’s pursuit team showed some encouraging signs by shaving one thousandth of a second off the national record in qualifying for Friday’s race for bronze.

Melissa Hoskins, Annette Edmondson and Josephine Tomic recomposed themselves following a malfunctioning start gate to record a time of 3:21.426 behind Canada (3:20.785) and Britain (3:21.370).