Great Britain's Shanaze Reade was satisfied with a silver medal at the BMX World Championships after a crash hampered her preparations.
Crewe rider Reade won the 2011 world time-trial title in Copenhagen, but qualified only ninth fastest at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham on the opening day of elite competition.
The 23-year-old stopped the clock in 29.401 seconds in the final and held the lead until Australia's Caroline Buchanan, the fastest qualifier and last to ride, finished in 28.942secs to snatch gold, leaving the Briton second and France's Eva Ailloud (29.699) third.
The race came just a week after Reade was hospitalised with severe concussion following a crash at the BMX track in Manchester, an incident which caused her to miss three days' training in London, which represented the last chance to ride the Olympic track before August's competition.
"I took a pretty heavy slam - not the best preparation leading into a worlds," said Reade, who is set to bid for a fourth super cross world title tomorrow.
"I missed the Olympic training due to injury and just had to rest up.
"Sometimes the goalposts move and you've got to move with them.
"I gave it my absolute best today and that best was a silver.
"A gold medal would've been absolutely great, but to get silver was fantastic.
"Hopefully tomorrow's a new day."
Reade was roared on by a partisan crowd and enjoyed the experience.
She added: "It was amazing. As soon as my name was announced everybody was cheering and it lifted my spirits. I went from ninth in the first time-trial to second. The crowd has a big influence."
Like Reade, Liam Phillips occupied the leader's seat until he was deposed by the final rider and had to settle for silver.
The 23-year-old from Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset qualified sixth fastest, but clocked 26.178 to defy his seeding only to see fastest qualifier Connor Fields of the United States go quicker to win gold in 25.806.
Phillips was thrilled with his first World Championships medal following a series of injuries and a six-month sabbatical in the velodrome.
"This was a race that I've been looking forward to for some time," he said.
"The Olympics is top of the order, but you can't overlook a World Championships in your back yard.
"This is qualifying at the end of the day. Racing's tomorrow and that's what we look to.
"I can take a lot of confidence, but at the same time I'm looking this to build going forward to tomorrow."
Phillips allowed himself to contemplate winning his first world champion's rainbow jersey while waiting for the event to conclude before Fields' success.
Asked what he was thinking, watching on, Phillips said: "Is this going to be the first time I'm world champion? I can kick myself for thinking that because Connor Fields was on the gate and he hasn't been beaten in a time-trial all year.
"I'm happy, but I would love to have won.
"I'm not going to get carried away. As long as I push on tomorrow and perform as well as I'm capable of then I'll be happy."
Reade is joined in the women's super cross tomorrow by Abbie Taylor, who qualified in 21st place today.
Tre Whyte and Grant Hill will join Phillips in the men's event.
