Sydney's Kate Bates, 24, won gold in the 25km women's points race and Queenslander Anna Meares, 23, collected bronze in the women's keirin to move Australia to second on the medal table at the end of the 2007 Track Cycling World Championships in Palma de Majorca, Spain.
Sydney's Kate Bates, 24, won gold in the 25km women's points race and Queenslander Anna Meares, 23, collected bronze in the women's keirin to move Australia to second on the medal table at the end of the 2007 Track Cycling World Championships in Palma de Majorca, Spain.
Australia finished the Championships with two gold and four bronze medals behind Great Britain's astonishing haul of seven gold, two silver and two bronze medals.
They were the only two nations to claim more than one victory in Majorca.
Bates won her 100 lap event with 35 points, six clear of second placed Mie Lacota of Denmark with New Zealander Catherine Cheatley claiming the bronze with 27 points.
The medallists, along with Mexican Belem Guerrero Mendez collected a 20 points bonus when they lapped the field after 65 laps with Bates clearly the strongest of the quartet.
She won one of the ten intermediate sprints for points and placed in four others and for the last ten laps had only to finish the race to collect her first World Champion's rainbow striped jersey.
"I still can't believe it, I'm so excited I've finally got a stripey jersey," said an ecstatic Bates after being presented with her jersey and singing a hearty rendition of Advance Australia Fair from the top step of the podium.
"I can't believe I've got it on."
Bates, a two time Commonwealth Games points race champion, was also excited about the prospect of buying a pair of Manola Blahnik shoes, made famous by the television program 'Sex and the City', a reward she promised herself only if she won a World Title.
"I've earned them because I've never worked this hard before and I just can't believe it's paid off," said Bates who wore a gold stilleto pendant around her neck during the race.
"My Auntie bought it for me and said 'one day you'll get the stripes honey but this is for you in the meantime'.
"I only wear it when I feel good because I don't want to curse it and today I had a feeling and AAAAAHHHH!"
For Bates the victory was even sweeter coming as it did after a disastrous start to the Championships when the night before Friday's individual pursuit she fell victim to the stomach bug that swept through the Australian team and posted a disappointing performance.
"It hurt my pride after being so fit and then underperforming but it also spurred me on," she said.
"I rested and I ate a lot of what I had lost in that day and to get this gold just shows that if you're determined enough you can do anything."
In the women's keirin an exhausted Meares won her way through to the final but in the wake of a bronze medal ride on day one in the teams sprint with Kristine Bayley, sprint qualifying a day later, a bronze medal performance in the sprint finals and a 500 metre time trial gold medal in a world record time, the final event of the Championships was one too many.
Great Britain's Victoria Pendleton claimed the victory, her third of the Championships with China's Shuang Guo second.
"One and a half laps to go I felt a bit panicky and just went off the front but I just ran out of legs in the end," said Meares who will now put aside the time trial in favour of the sprint which is the only event in her discipline at the Beijing Olympic Games.
"I'm hoping it will come back on the program for the London Olympics but for next year it's off my agenda.
"It's disappointing and sad to put it aside but even if it doesn't come back I'd like to see them try and beat that (World Record time she rode here in Majorca)," said Meares.
The other medal of the Championships for the Australians was a bronze medal to Melbourne's Katie Mactier in the 3km individual pursuit.
"Thank goodness for the girls, they were just tremendous," said Australian High Performance Director, Shayne Bannan.
"We've gone away with a lot to think about and we'll be sitting down to analyse this Championships as we had always planned to do.
"We're going away from this with our feet on the ground and we know there's room for improvement but more importantly we know where that improvement needs to come from," Bannan explained.
"It's about the process, about what we believe, about the team unity and about putting our plan together and sticking to it to get the results in Beijing.
"No Olympic medal is easy to win and if you go to an Olmypics thinking otherwise you'll have problem so we're going to Beijing with a big challenge ahead of us and we're preparing for that challenge."
Bannan says he was pleased with the way some of the younger, less experienced riders performed in Majorca.
"For example Cameron Meyer who is 19 years old and was fourth in the men's points race against some of the real gladiators of the sport," said Bannan.
"Any year but an Olympic year is a good time to experiment with younger riders and to put them under pressure they haven't experienced yet, so we're going away from here very pleased with a lot of aspects but always looking to see where we can improve."
Cycling Australia