Faster, Higher, Stronger, Tighter

Revolutionary skinsuit helps UK cyclists go for Olympic gold
It is one of sport's most closely guarded secrets - a technological breakthrough designed to power British cyclists to gold in Beijing.

By Patrick Sawyer
Last Updated: 12:04PM BST 06 Aug 2008
Telegraph.co.uk

All change: the British cycling team's new skinsuit will be unveiled at the start of Beijing Photo: PA

Now, it can be revealed that the Olympic cycling team's riders will be wearing a revolutionary new bodysuit when they take to the track in the chase for a record number of medals.

The super-aerodynamic "skinsuit" will be unveiled on Saturday, the first day of competition in Beijing.

The kit has been kept so secret that only Chris Boardman, the former Olympic champion and British Cycling's director of research and development, and a small group of his closest associates - nicknamed the "secret squirrel club" by colleagues - know the details of its material and design.

They hope the suit, which has been kept under lock and key at the team's headquarters at the Manchester Velodrome, will have a similar impact to the "body suit", which has allowed swimmers to dramatically improve times in the pool by reducing drag. The new cycling suit is similarly designed to reduce air drag in a sport where even the whisker of an advantage can be translated into victory.

It is one of a string of technological innovations that have made the British a leading force in world cycling and hopeful of a record haul of medals in Beijing.

The sprint and pursuit riders will be using a new £10,000 bike, the successor to the one-piece carbon Lotus frame which stunned the cycling world in Barcelona 1992, when Boardman rode to Olympic gold in the pursuit event.

All but a handful of its 250 components have been radically re-designed since the Athens Olympics four years ago, when the team won a relatively disappointing haul of just two golds, a silver and a bronze.

This time round the GB Olympic Cycling Team - funded by £3.5 million of Lottery money - is hoping to win as many as nine golds.

The Beijing games will be the first time all the new elements of the bike and rider's kit will have been assembled in competition. Even now they have only been used in training in their final state on a handful of occasions – and then behind closed doors.

The team's spokesman, Jonathan O'Neil, said: "We've analysed and improved every single square centimetre of the riders and their bikes and improved everything we legally can. But we are a competitive team and are constantly looking for a competitive edge and we don't ever discuss details of the innovations in our bikes and clothes."

The new equipment, which the team hopes will carry the likes of Mark Cavendish, Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and Bradley Wiggins to the medals podium, also includes individually-moulded shoes, a crank that measures each rider's heart rate and wheel axles designed using aerospace technology.

Only the pedals, sprockets and chains have emerged from the hi-tech transformation of British cycling unaltered – because the team's technicians felt their performance could not be improved upon.

To avoid falling foul of the International Cycling Union's rules on equipment, every one of the new components has been used individually in competition over the past two years, in order to set a precedent.

Nicole Cooke and Sharon Laws, who will be competing in road races, will also be using a new bike, which has been designed for the games by Boardman, working with Halfords Bikehut.

The full carbon fibre frame has been designed to maximise stiffness, strength and comfort while keeping weight to a minimum.

Britain is not the only nation whose cycling teams have been busy overhauling their equipment in the run up to Beijing, and its scouts have been routinely photographing innovations by rivals and reporting back for them to be either incorporated or ignored.

But while the Germans have created their own "state of the art" bike, the British believe they have made the crucial mistake of not consulting anyone outside their team of experts or even the riders themselves.

"We've gone outside cycling and learnt in a completely different arena," Boardman said. "Our German competitors, for instance, don't talk to anyone outside their team so they are limited in their thinking. They've done some really good stuff, but it's hindered because of no outside influence and they also didn't consult the athletes. They produced this bike last year, which was state-of-the-art, but their riders hated it."

In contrast the GB team has taken advantage of a £1.5 million, five year agreement between UK Sport – the public funding agency for elite competition – and the defence company BAE Systems, giving British athletes access to 18,000 engineers specialising in aerodynamics, mathematical modelling and computer simulation.

Aerospace technology has been harnessed to help the design of moving parts, such as the wheel's axles, in order to maximise speed and efficiency. But creating the perfect bike is not enough. Success will only come from a perfect marriage of man and machine.

Each rider likes their saddle to be adjusted differently, their handlebars to be shaped in a particular way and the grip tape set at a different thickness. Consequently hours are spent by the team's mechanics in patiently adapting each piece of equipment for its rider. And just as much time and money is invested in the riders' physique and mental state.

The roots of the revolution in British cycling go back to the team's miserable performance at the world track championships ten years ago, when Britain's only hope, Chris Boardman, failed to make an impression. But after a decade - and several million pounds worth of investment - the team stands a realistic chance of winning as many as nine gold medals across 11 individual events.

Former director of performance Peter Keen, his successor Dave Brailsford and Boardman, backed by a team of coaches, mechanics, sports psychologists, physiotherapists and nutritionists, focused the team around the mantra 'medal or nothing'. Fulfilling this idea involved perfecting every area of the team's performance.

The training programme included two of the team's riders, Rob Hayles and Jason Queally, spending three days a month at Southampton University's wind tunnel – at a cost of £10,000 a day - testing the most aerodynamic combination of wheel spokes, handlebars, helmets, riding suit materials, seat adjustment and body position.

Training techniques used by powerlifters have been incorporated into the riders' programmes to help them develop the explosive force required for instant acceleration.

With a combination of single-minded dedication, a gruelling training regime and a hi-tech revolution shrouded in secrecy, British cycling is set to leave the competition in Beijing trailing in its wake.