The defending champs made a loud statement as the opening shots were fired in the 2010 Harrex Group Corporate Pursuit in the Grading Time Trial held tonight at the ILT Velodrome.
The YMCA Education/Recreation side set the track alight last year but blew that time away by almost two seconds to take the fastest time and favourites tag into next week's Corporate Pursuit.
But they didn't have it all their own way. The floral-shirted 5-0s (Police team) rocked onto the Velodrome to the theme from Hawaii 5-0 and rocked their way over the kilometre just .152 of a second slower than the Y.
The H&J Smith Outdoor World team ripped their way to the third qualifying spot late in the evening with a sharp 1'16'102 - just outside last year's overall winning time.
Personal bests were frequent - The Southland Times knocking a full eight seconds off their previous team best.
The top 16 teams qualifiers for Division One: YMCA, Police, H&J Outdoor World, Fonterra's Milking It, Jackson Plumbing, Fire 1, HW Richardson, Environment Southland, WHK, BDO, McIntyre Dick, Konica Minolta, EIS, MacPherson Real Estate, Preston Russell Law and Harrex Group
The next 18 qualify for Division Two: Fire 2, H&J Smith, Mitre 10 Mega, SBS Bank, BNZ, Southland District Council, Fonterra Creaming It, Malloch McLean, Southroads, Southland Times, Opus, Harcourts, Powernet, Southport, AWS, ILT, SEC Electrical and Waihopai Health Centre.
For full results click here.
For Full Team Split Times click here.