New Zealand's men's team pursuit team have finished third in the cycling World Cup event at the London Olympic velodrome on Monday (NZT).
The sub-four minute effort was comfortably ahead of fourth-placed Belgium, an encouraging result given the absence of top-line rider Jesse Sergent.
Sam Bewley, Aaron Gate, Westley Gough and Marc Ryan clocked 3min 59.242sec, more than five seconds clear of Belgium.
Sergent, 23, is on duty with his RadioShack Nissan Trek team, contesting the Volta ao Algarve in Portugal this month as a build-up to the prestigious Giro d'Italia in May.
The event was won by world champions Australia, who downed arch-rivals Britain by nearly two seconds in an outstanding 3min 54.615sec.
The time set by Jack Bobridge, Rohan Dennis, Alex Edmondson and Michael Hepburn was the second fastest in history, beaten only by Britain's gold medal-winning 3min 53.314sec at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
NZN