Norfolk: Lotus designs Team GB cycle for Paris Olympics 2024

The Hethel-based company designed the bike Chris Walls rode to win gold in the men's omnium cycling in Tokyo in 2021 and now it is aiming for more medals at next year's events.

Lotus has previously seen cycling success at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and at the 1994 Tour De France where Chris Boardman clinched the top spot in both competitions.

The company, which is best known for its sports cars, says the new bike was designed using a "pioneering" approach to light-weighting, advanced materials and optimised aerodynamics.

Mark Stringer, commercial director at Lotus Engineering, said: “Technical services is about what we can supply throughout the entire product development process.

"We take the core principals we have gained from automotive development, where we have a global pedigree, to develop solutions across the wider mass transportation and personal mobility sectors.”

Before the race in 2021, Lotus's chief aerodynamicist Richard Hill told this newspaper designing a racing bike came down to making "a fraction of a second" difference.

He said: "In 1992 it was about knocking off quite a few seconds, now it's about fractions of seconds which can make the difference between gold or nothing at all.

“Back then, it was simply about developing an aerodynamic bike that would go fast.

"But really there are two separate elements – the bike and the rider – which come together as one to move through the air.

"That was the approach we took with the Tokyo bike and is continuing for Paris 2024.”

The Lotus bike was ridden by all Team GB athletes at Tokyo 2020 and it is expected that all athletes will do the same in 2024.