Anyone who follows track cycling will know that the Olympics are just as much an arms race as a human one. The 3D-printed handlebars, £600 socks and £3,000 skinsuits have been the talk of the velodrome this week.
But it is not all cut-throat in the world of R&D. Eagle-eyed spotters have noticed that the Great Britain track cycling team have had a bit of fun with their Princeton CarbonWorks wheels, which have the words “extra round” stencilled in tiny letters on the discs.
The words are clearly a reference to the “rounder wheels” cheating row that erupted at the London 2012 Games after France’s director of cycling, Isabelle Gautheron, questioned Team GB’s success, asking why they were “hiding their wheels in covers” at the end of races.
Sir Dave Brailsford, then performance director of British Cycling, joked to a French newspaper that GB’s “secret squirrels club” headed up by Chris Boardman had designed some “specially round wheels”, leading to a famous headline in L’Équipe: “Magic or Mavic.”
Great Britain have led the way in track cycling R&D for years, and appear still to have the most sophisticated programme.
Among the team’s innovations this year are £3,000 skinsuits designed by Silverstone-based aero experts Vorteq, and 3D-printed titanium cranks, split-seat posts and seat bridges by Renishaw. The overall cost of the British Hope-Lotus bike is £55,000 if you add up its constituent parts.
According to International Cycling Union rules, all equipment used at the Games has to be made commercially available, although in practice many of the prices quoted are grossly over-inflated so as to dissuade anyone from buying them.
The margins are getting ever tighter, though, with other nations taking a far keener interest in this area and also using 3D printing and other technologies. The Japan team have developed a bike with a drivetrain on the left which officially costs over £100,000.
Inevitably, with so much competition in this space, there are whispers of patent infringement at these Games.
British Cycling was able to bolster its advantage in the Paris cycle by acquiring a wind tunnel from Halfords for £1, which was installed a short walk from the National Cycling Centre in Manchester in 2022. But performance director Stephen Park conceded earlier this year that, with each new cycle, come “diminishing returns” on new equipment.
“You’re still looking for every half a per cent,” he said. “It’s a challenge, but it’s a good one. We’ve got some really smart people doing some really good work in that space. I’d be quite happy if I was a rider.”
Team GB have topped the medals table on the track at the last four Olympics.