Kiwi cyclists disqualified for 'embarrassing' blunder

New Zealand's cycling team have been left embarrassed after a strange blunder cost their men's 4000m pursuit team a shot at a bronze medal.

Regan Gough, Nick Kergozou, Campbell Stewart and Tom Sexton were disqualified from their bronze medal race at the Commonwealth Games on Thursday night after one of their bikes was found to be illegal during their qualifying run.

"We have regulations that pertain to the setup that the bike can be configured in and one of our bikes was found to be non-compliant for the front end of the bike," Cycling NZ high performance director Martin Barras said.

"It was very, very close to the mark, but it was a failing on our part. I have to be blunt about that and we have to deliver material that is in compliance with the rules."

The point of contention was the height from the elbow pads on the "cockpit" of the bike to the top of the grip on the handlebars, which was above the 100 millimetre regulations.

"The difference was about 105 or 106mm, when it should be 100mm.

"It probably forms a big part of my name, but yeah, it is [embarrassing]."

Barras said it was very difficult breaking the news to the riders.

"It's tough to explain the sort of conversation you have with your riders after something like that, which is through no fault of their own. It was a particularly painful apology to make to the four guys considering they had a very good ride too.

"It's interesting. 'S*** happens' [was their response], but I don't particularly accept that. They were being a bit too nice to us I think.

"This is a team failing, there is no other way to describe it."

CNZ appealed the disqualification, but it was dismissed.

However the Kiwis did pouch their first gold medal with a rousing men's team sprint cycling win via Eddie Dawkins, Sam Webster and Ethan Mitchell.

Falling just short in the women's team pursuit and women's team sprint - on both occasions, defeated by eternal foes Australia - it was up to the men to claim glory.

And the Kiwi trio comprehensively delivered.

Having earlier notched a Games-record time of 42.822 seconds in qualifying, Dawkins, Webster and Mitchell went on to beat England's trio with a time of 42.877 seconds.

As a result, the Kiwis claimed medals in three of Thursday's four team cycling events.

with AAP