Australia surprised everyone except themselves to win the men's team pursuit gold medal, gaining sweet redemption by beating arch-rivals Great Britain in the final.
Sam Welsford, Kelland O'Brien, Conor Leahy and Oliver Bleddyn won a pulsating, dramatic final on Wednesday at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome outside Paris.
It comes three years after Alex Porter's horrific face plant in qualifying, when his handlebar snapped off, meant Australia had to settle for bronze at the Tokyo Games.
Australia's gold is the first in the event for 20 years and comes after losing the gold medal ride to the British at London and Rio.
It is also Australia's first gold medal in track cycling since Anna Meares, now the team chef de mission, beat her British rival Victoria Pendleton in the sprint final at London.
Australia also broke the world record in Tuesday's opening round, surprising their rivals.
"I knew we were in a good spot, obviously breaking the world record yesterday, and it was actually really nice ... being the underdogs," Welsford said.
"A lot of people underestimated what we can do and we used that to our advantage. We all knew we had it in us."
Welsford now has the team pursuit medal set, after silver in Rio and bronze in Tokyo.
Given Australia surprised their rivals, long-time coach Tim Decker was asked if they surprised themselves.
It was the only time the smile left Decker's face in the wake of their triumph.
"No. Never. People forget Tokyo and what happened ... we were a very, very strong team there and we got a bronze medal probably with our third-best lineup," Decker said, with emphasis.
"The resilience these boys showed in Tokyo and to actually move forward from that and come back and make this happen, is really high-level history in cycling.
"We've been to hell and back and for them to make this happen, has been amazing."
After Australia showed technical perfection to lower the world record to three minutes 40.730 seconds on Tuesday, the final was an old-fashioned dog fight and team pursuiting at its finest.
It nearly ended in disaster for the British, with designated finisher Ethan Hayter somehow keeping his bike upright and not bringing down his teammmates when he slipped in his saddle on the final lap.
Hayter, Daniel Bigham, Charlie Tanfield and Oliver Wood trailled Australia by two tenths of a second at the start of the last lap and Hayter's mishap blew out the margin.
Australia clocked 3:42.067 and won by more than two seconds. Italy beat Denmark for the bronze.
Bigham revealed post-race that their warmup song is Australian - Men At Work's Down Under - and that the winners took them by surprise.
"I genuinely feel we underestimated what the Aussies would bring to the party. They have lifted it a huge amount and that cannot be denied - that's seriously impressive," he said.
The Australian cycling campaign in Paris now boasts three gold medals and two bronze, the second-best Olympics for the sport after the six gold at the Athens Games.
It is also a massive turnaround from Tokyo, especially on the track, when Porter's horrific crash came to symbolise their disastrous campaign.
Also on Wednesday, Australians Matthew Richardson and Leigh Hoffman made solid starts in the match sprint.
Richardson was second-fastest in qualifying and Hoffman was fourth as Dutch ace Harrie Lavreyson rode a world record 9.088 seconds for the flying 200m.
Richardson has progressed to the quarter-finals, but Hoffman lost his 1/8 round repechage heat and it out.
Kristina Clonan won her repechage heat to stay alive in the women's keirin, while Australia finished seventh in the women's team pursuit.
The United States, coached by Australian Gary Sutton, defended their women's pursuit gold medal.