The Australian men’s team pursuiters have scored a rare win at the Mexico round of the World Cup track cycling series.

It was also the first gold medal for Australia in the series after two silver and three bronze in round one.

Australia beat Denmark on day one of the Mexico round as their British rivals won the bronze medal ride-off.

Australian riders also set national records on the way to bronze medals in the women’s team pursuit and the men’s team sprint.

But the top performance of day one came from the British women’s team pursuiters, who broke their own world record twice.

Great Britain sent a development squad to Mexico for the men’s team pursuit after beating Australia last month at round one in Manchester.

Australia’s Luke Davison, Alex Morgan, Alex Edmondson and Mitch Mulhearn set the fastest qualifying time.

Davison, who is also racing the omnium, then made way for Glenn O’Shea in the gold-medal ride.

O’Shea set up the win with a big effort in the opening kilometre of the 4000m event, giving them a lead of nearly a second before he dropped out.

His three teammates then held on to clock three minutes 55.841 seconds, more than two seconds ahead of the Danes.

“We came here without the best preparation with delayed flights and struggling to get on top of the altitude but, to come away with a 55 in the qualifying and then to back it up in the final, is unbelievable,” said Edmondson.

“With Luke focusing on the omnium, we had to use Glenno in the final who has come over after two months off the bike so we used him up early and he did a great job.

“For the last 10 laps, it was a three-up suffer-fest.”

The British have dominated the men’s team pursuit, last year winning the world title in Melbourne and breaking their world record at the London Olympics.

Australia’s Isabella King, Amy Cure, Ashlee Ankudinoff and Melissa Hoskins were third fastest in qualifying and beat the United States by nearly two seconds for the bronze medal.

The British continue to take quantum leaps in the event, which this year has gone up from 3000m and three riders to 4000m and four competitors per team – the same as the men.

After narrowly breaking their world record in qualifying, they smashed it again with an amazing 4:16.552 in the final, a whopping six-plus seconds faster than Canada.

The Australians broke the national record with their bronze medal ride of 4:22.533.

The Australian men’s team sprint trio of Matthew Glaetzer, Shane Perkins and Nathan Hart also broke the national record when they qualified third in 42.671 seconds.

They then beat the Dutch in the bronze medal ride-off.

Germany set a world record of 41.871 seconds in qualifying and then beat Great Britain for the gold medal.

Australians Anna Meares and Stephanie Morton were fifth in the women’s team sprint, narrowly missing the bronze medal ride-off.

Davison leads the men’s omnium after the opening three rounds and Cure was 14th in the women’s points race.