Five factors that will determine GB's medal count at the velodrome

The GB cycling team's winning philosophy is "aggregation of marginal gains": get a lot of small things right, put them all together, and they add up to a significant gain. No stone is left unturned as these examples show.

1. Aerodynamics

Over 200 individual items have been wind-tunnel tested by the "secret squirrels", the group of scientists assembled by the 1992 gold medallist Chris Boardman. The racing kit worn for the track events has been kept hidden until these Games. The precise details are confidential, but the figure-hugging suits are slightly plasticized and appear to be much tighter than normal kit, if the efforts the riders have to make to get into them are anything to go by. The Dutch team are also experimenting with a similar suit, featuring plasticized panels where needed to enhance airflow around the riders.

2. Custom-built bikes

Most intricate part of the carbon-fibre bikes are the handlebars, which cost £1700 each and are a one-piece moulding incorporating what would be three bits on a normal bike: bars, stem and part of the frame. They include a flattened upper "wing" section for improved aerodynamics and a section around where the hands grip the bars which pushes the air out and around the hand to enhance airflow like a spoiler on a sports car.

3. Cleaning up

Watch out for the mechanics spraying alcohol on the tyres before each race, then wiping them down. This removes a tiny layer of dirt that builds up on the surface each time the rider takes to the boards, and will make the rubber very slightly tacky, improving traction when a standing start is made – in the team sprint and pursuit events. Resin is also put on the riders' hands before the sprint races to improve their grip on the bars.

4. Golden widgets

£100,000 has been spent on special extra-stiff aluminium chainrings – the big round cog at the front - to help maximise the transmission of power from the pedals. They are good value though, as they replaced a batch bought for the Sydney games. Not surprisingly, they are carried in a special aluminium box, all 120 of them. The sprockets – the small cogs at the back – are colour coded according to the number of teeth on each one, hand-painted in Hammerite by the mechanics so that the right gear can be quickly selected. This is vital – at one world championship several years ago one rider was given the wrong ratio, failed to ride well, and was so gutted he nearly retired.

5. Cooling devices

According to GB, they will be using the same "magic chairs" that were seen in Athens: these are garden chairs with cold water pockets into which the cyclists can plunge their hands – the part of the body in which heat transfer to the surrounding area is quickest to cool down between efforts. It's hardly surprising that the cyclists get warm: Jamie Staff, the starter in the team sprint tomorrow, can produce 2,350 watts of power output at his maximum, which is over 3hp. The torque – rotational force – that he produces in his starting effort, is, briefly, equal to that of a formula one car.