World Champions 2014: Cycling men's team sprint

Eddie Dawkins (left) celebrates the Cali triumph with Ethan Mitchell. Photo / AP

Credit must go to all three members of New Zealand's team sprint outfit - Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster and Eddie Dawkins - plus the back-room staff who all contributed to their sensational gold medal ride in Cali, Colombia, in February.

The trio clocked 42.84s to win the world title.

But there is no doubt that of the three riders, Dawkins was the one who earned the most praise after the victory over the defending champion Germans to secure New Zealand's first team sprint title.

Mitchell, leading, and Webster, next to ride in front, did their roles extremely well, but New Zealand were slightly down on the Germans before Southlander Dawkins took over, racing head to head against Maximilian Levy, a four-time world champion, and overturning that disadvantage to hand the Kiwis the gold.

It was sweet revenge for the year before when the same team lost to the Germans in the gold medal ride. Their margin of victory in February was 0.045 seconds.

Aucklander Webster said afterwards: "It has been a hard few years for us. In 2012 we got bronze and we qualified first last year but couldn't capitalise on a good qualification. We've been working hard and it is a new year with a new coach, so to win gold this time means a lot to us.

"It was a very tight race - only a couple of hundredths of a second separated us the whole way. It was Eddie that brought it home for us. He was the one that pulled the cat out of the bag and won the race for us."

The Kiwis had comfortably led the qualifiers with a national record time of 43.065 - almost half a second faster than their previous fastest of 43.544 set at last year's world's in Belarus. Mitchell, Webster and Dawkins followed their victory with Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow in July and must be seen as the team to beat at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.