Sydney stars back in form

Four play: The British quartet speed into the next round

Britain's bronze-medal winning team pursuit cyclists have begun the World Track Championships in Manchester by qualifying fastest from the opening round.

Paul Manning, Chris Newton, Bryan Steel, and Bradley Wiggins covered the 4,000m distance in a shade under four minutes and seven seconds.

Although the time was slower than when they set the fastest time during qualifying in Sydney, the quartet appeared to ease off in the closing laps to conserve energy.

The German Olympic champions, who are missing individual Olympic champion Robert Bartko due to illness, were third fastest.

  Times (top eight qualify)

1. GB: 4:06.984

2. France: 4:07.189

3. Germany: 4:07.483

4. Russia: 4:12.392

5. Netherlands: 4:15.604

6. Spain 4:16.157

7. Poland 4:16.997

8. Czech Republic 4:18.425

9. Italy 4:23.577

10. Mexico: 4:27.577

The French, who finished fourth in Sydney, were also quicker than the Germans as they finished just 0.2 seconds behind Britain.

The leading three teams were head and shoulders clear of the rest, with Germany almost five seconds quicker than Russia.

Britain now take on the slowest qualifier, the Czech Republic, in Wednesday evening's quarter-finals.

France meet Poland, and Germany are up against Spain with the remaining match setting Russia against the Netherlands.

Italy missed out on the quarter-finals as they could only set the ninth-fastest time. Olympic silver medallists Ukraine were not entered at the world championships.

Queally looking forward

Wednesday night also sees Britain's Olympic champion Jason Queally go for a gold medal double.

The kilometre time trial is completed on the first night of the championships, as it was in Sydney when Queally gave the entire British Olympic team an opening day lift with his victory.

Like the team pursuit, the 1km event is all about time - and is a simple matter of who can ride the distance the quickest.

Wednesday night's third event, the men's madison, is far more complicated and depends on a which pair of riders can win the most points in a series of sprints.

This was the event in which Rob Hayles and Bradley Wiggins finished fourth in Sydney after Hayles crashed on the penultimate lap.

The British pair has been unable to enter the world championship madison since both are also key members of the team pursuit squad.

This has to race on the same night, unlike in Sydney where the events were days apart.