THE talk in the build-up to Rio 2016 wasn’t if Colne cyclist Steven Burke and the rest of Great Britain’s men’s team pursuit would break the world record, but rather by how much.

And while they might not have managed to do it in their opener on Thursday, head coach Iain Dyer is adamant there is still plenty more to come.

Locked away in Newport, Wales, in preparation for the Olympic Games, the message from the Great Britain camp was that Burke, Ed Clancy, Owain Doull and Sir Bradley Wiggins were quick – seriously quick.

And while they didn’t rewrite the record books first time up, their time of 3 mins 51.943 secs was good enough for top spot, almost three-and-a-half seconds faster than their nearest challengers Denmark.

That set up a semi-final with New Zealand today – the Kiwis more than four seconds off Great Britain’s pace – and Dyer can’t wait to see what is left in Burke and his teammate’s tank.

“We just need to execute now," he said. “We feel good, we feel confident and we are on schedule.

“The plan was to do what is done, execute the first race which we did really, really well so nothing changes.

“We need to come back and do it twice again. The semi-final we could gauge and leave a little bit in the tank for the final hopefully, but there is more to come for sure.”

Burke and Clancy are the only two survivors from the team that claimed the title at London 2012 in a then world record time.

And while a defence would appear to be on the cards Dyer is not letting his troops get ahead of themselves just yet.

“I am not going to start counting medals before they are raced,” he added.

“There are no dead certs so we will need to continue to be focused and make sure we are execute and deliver the plan from here on out.”

And it proved to be a night to remember as the Great Britain women’s team pursuit quartet broke Australia’s 18-month-old world record as they came home in 4:13.260.

There was also a medal to celebrate a Jason Kenny, Philip Hindes and Callum Skinner defender the team sprint title from London 2012.

For Kenny it was his third gold and he is halfway to matching the tally of Sir Chris Hoy, but he admitted his hat-trick gong had taken him by surprise after the trio were sixth at March’s World Championships in London.

“We said at the time that we were a bit better than sixth,” Kenny said after beating world champions New Zealand in the final.

“It was still all a surprise to be honest, genuinely. We have been going quite well in training so we had a rough idea of what we could do but we after setting an Olympic record in that first race I thought we could run away with it like we did in London.

“But then New Zealand came back at us with an Olympic record and really set the benchmark then so we went into the final with nothing to lose really.

“We were second fastest and left it all on the track and unbelievably it was enough.”

* Aldi is the first Official Supermarket partner of Team GB and has been championing our nation’s extraordinary athletes on their Road to Rio and encouraging the public to tuck into fresh, affordable, Great British food. For more information visit aldi.co.uk