Sydney, July 30 (ANI): Britain's track cycling team will be unveiling revolutionary battery-powered hot pants in London's Olympic velodrome following covert trials over 18 months designed to give the home nation a scientific advantage over their rivals.
According to Fairfax, the team's physiologist has said that the technology will change track cycling - and potentially other sports - forever, in a similar fashion that high-tech suits have changed elite swimming.
Every member of Great Britain's track unit will wear the custom-fit, cutting-edge pants from the time they finish their warm-up until the moment they step onto the boards.
The new pants boast of quick-release zips that will allow the cyclists to rip the garment off in a flash, the pants will keep the buttocks and thighs of the British athletes' at the optimum temperature of about 38 degrees before they compete, much like tyre warmers that are used in Formula 1.
The British team was well into trialling the special pants at the time of the world championships in Melbourne three months ago, but did not wear them at Hisense Arena in order to protect their intellectual property, which had been in the making for and is the result of collaboration between British Cycling, Loughborough University and designer adidas.
The technology was kept under wraps until the eve of the Olympics Games, after British cycling coaches saw the potential for marginal gain if athletes' bodies could be kept warm until the final seconds before racing.
Scientists proved that the clear benefit in maintaining the temperatures cyclists typically build up by pedalling stationary bikes on the velodrome floor, but which they are physically unable to maintain themselves in the period that they sit down to compose themselves before hitting the track.
''I think this will become part of track cycling. Especially after seeing how athletes have taken to wearing them," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Esme Taylor, a physiologist with the British cycling team who has worked on the development of the pants, as telling Fairfax.
"They see these as part of their warm-up now ... and for us that shows how good they are," Taylor said.
Members of the British track team have been experimenting with the pants for the past 18 months and, now that rivals cannot attempt to replicate them due to shortage of time, are providing ringing endorsements.
Britain's leading female cyclist Victoria Pendleton feels that the extra piece of team uniform will help raise her performance levels for the Games.
"They heat up almost instantaneously, they're just amazing. You really feel the temperature on your quads and hamstrings and it really makes a difference," she said in London on Sunday.
"You have to work with cooling ... but for me as a sprinter I've got lots of short events spread out during the day so it's essential that my muscles maintain temperature," she said.
Udo Mueller from adidas's innovations team said the technology would benefit sportsmen in games like soccer and other winter sports, particularly for substitution players. (ANI)
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