Australia's world champion men's sprinters have been dethroned in a sensational battle with their great Dutch rivals, while Kristina Clonan has raced to time trial silver on the Glasgow track.

The trio of Leigh Hoffman, Matt Richardson and Matt Glaetzer, victorious in last year's final at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in Paris, were this time beaten at the World Championships by the same Dutch threesome of Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland in a see-saw showdown at the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome.

The arena, named after one of the greatest sprinters in history, witnessed another astonishing battle on Friday as the lead switched twice in just 41.647 thrilling seconds as the Netherlands regained their status as best in the world by a mere 0.035 sec.

Hoffman was outpaced over half of the first lap but roared back to pip van den Berg by 0.112 seconds when the 250m circuit was completed, an advantage that was cut to 0.042 as Commonwealth champ Richardson was pitted against his great rival, double Olympic gold medallist Lavreysen.

But in the final circuit, the Aussie lead was finally overhauled by a blistering lap from Hoogland, who was described by his teammate van den Berg as "the machine" for his sensational triumph over triple world champ Glaetzer.

"I looked at the scoreboard and I saw that we were a little behind, then we were in front, then we were behind," van den Berg said.

"It was a rollercoaster of emotions."

Thomas Cornish, who had competed in the qualification round on Thursday, also ended with silver alongside his three Australian teammates.

Clonan, the only women's sprinter in the Australian team, had earlier delivered the performance of her life as the penultimate rider in the 500m IP, clocking a personal best of 32.956 seconds as she roared into the gold-medal position at an average speed of 54.618kph over the two laps.