The highly-rated Australian men’s pursuit track cycling team has conducted groundbreaking wind tunnel analysis in their quest to win gold at the upcoming Olympic Games in London.

A collaborative partnership between the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), CSIRO, Cycling Australia and Monash University, has enabled Olympic cyclists and coaches to examine rider by rider aerodynamic interaction by reconfiguring one of the largest wind tunnels in the southern hemisphere.

Watch the video of AIS Senior Physiologist and Sport Science Coordinator for Cycling Australia, Dr David Martin, Australian cyclist Jack Bobridge and Professor John Sheridan from Monash University’s Faculty of Engineering talking about the wind tunnel analysis.

AIS Senior Physiologist and Sport Science Coordinator for Cycling Australia, Dr David Martin said it was the first time all four riders in the pursuit team could be tested simultaneously in the wind tunnel.

'In the past we focused on the aerodynamic efficiency of each cyclist one at a time,' Dr Martin said,

'New technical developments at the Monash wind tunnel allows all four riders and the interactions between the four riders to be examined simultaneously.'

This type of testing can be used to carefully evaluate riding position and guide equipment selection with the primary goal of making the whole team faster, not just one individual.

The facility is usually the scene of aircraft or automotive testing to improve aerodynamics but in the pursuit of a gold medal in London, it has been adapted for our track cyclists.

The giant wind turbines at the Monash wind tunnel produce a 65-kilometre per hour gale into the faces of the riders.

The testing jig allows cyclists to adopt relevant pedalling rates and rider to rider spacing. As a result coaches and athletes can drill into specific equipment and body position options to identify the best way to produce speed for a given amount of power. Smoke can be blown over the riding formation to give a clear visual of aspects of the team that can be modified to produce speed or aerodynamic gains.

'The idea is simple but to be able to engineer all the equipment required, to be able  to gain access to one of the biggest wind tunnels in the southern hemisphere, to be able to work in with an athlete’s preparation schedule it was really hard to pull it all together,” Dr Martin said.

'I think testing like this can make big inroads to improvements that make a difference. It might only be a half a second, but because the competition’s so tight it’s really important.”

Australian cycling star Jack Bobridge said testing like this was crucial in the cut throat world of track cycling.

'These days it is coming down to the all the one percenters which includes aerodynamics,' Bobridge said. 'When you win you might be talking about a margin of 0.1 of a second over four kilometres so testing the entire team allows us to explore some questions that are very difficult to answer using any other technique. I believe, this type of testing will give us confidence and potentially gives us more than one percent.

'So to be able to fine tune our team aerodynamics like this is massive for our group.'

 was confident the operation would have a positive impact on the team.

'It really is a possibility that you can make a difference in such things. A cyclist is not an aerodynamic shape, like a wing, but we have now learned how the flow passes over the cyclists, when we know how the flow passes over them this helps us to make recommendations that should make a big difference in performance,' he said.