Teun Mulder of the Netherlands upset French hopes of a first gold at the world track championships Friday when he blitzed his way in record time to victory in the men's kilometre.
French duo Michael D'Almeida and Francois Pervis won the silver and bronze respectively in a repeat of the 2008 worlds podium when Mulder took his first gold in the four-lap time trial.
Mulder was 11th to go from the 25-man field but made sure of getting in among the medals early when he set a time of 1min 00.341sec, almost a second faster than his winning time two years ago and a new world record at sea level.
The previous world record at sea level was held by defending champion Stefan Nimke, who set 1:00.666 at last year's world championships in Poland.
Mulder's mark was only ever threatened by D'Almeida, who clocked 1:00.884 to claim his second silver of the championships after anchoring France to second in the team sprint on Wednesday.
Mulder admitted he had surprised even himself in the kilometre, a non-Olympic event which is however regarded as a crucial stepping stone for the sprint and keirin events.
"I didn't expect to go so fast, but I felt good. There were a lot of riders coming after me who I knew would be fast, so I was a little bit afraid," said the Dutchman.
"I saw my time and I thought, 'how could I do this?'. I knew it was a world record on sea level, but I thought the guys would be inspired by that and go out to make sure they beat me."
Mulder, who now has three world titles - he also won the keirin at Los Angeles in 2004 - added: "This is a moment I will never forget."
Edward Dawkins had hopes of claiming an unlikely bronze when he clocked a superb 1:01.372 to sit in provisional third.
Pervis's ride of 1:01.024 then pushed the 20-year-old, one of several up and coming sprinters from New Zealand, into fourth place, which became fifth after defending champion Stefan Nimke of Germany clocked 1:01.086 to finish fourth.