LONDON — The velodrome at Olympic Park already has become a visual icon of the 2012 Summer Games. Its striking red cedar walls are a welcome, organic contrast to the steel and plastic of other venues. And its swooping oval roof has led to one of the great nicknames in architecture history. No one talks about going to the cycling track or the velodrome. They talk about going to the Pringle.

But there's more to the Pringle than its exterior design. Between the construction of its 250-meter track and the way the interior atmosphere is managed, it's clear London is home to the fastest cycling track on Earth. In a sport where events are timed to the thousandth of a second, eight world records were set in the two evenings of competition, including the British men taking a stunning 0.314 of a second out of the team sprint record on their way to a gold medal.

The first key to those records is the track itself. Like all world-class velodromes, it's constructed of wood — in this case, Siberian pine. But there's a difference to this track. There's no standard design for cycling tracks, so this track has higher banking in the turns than many, as well as a finish line 5 meters further down the straightaway. That allows riders to come off the turn with a slingshot effect to the line and a little more time to enjoy the straight.

Ron Webb, who designed this track and the Olympic velodromes in Seoul, Sydney, and Athens, told Reuters that the track is "the best he's worked on."

And then there's the atmosphere that the track sits in. Literally. The temperature inside the velodrome is maintained at a sweltering 28 degrees Celsius, which is 82.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Warm air is conducive to fast times not only because it helps keep the athletes' muscles loose and flexible, but also because warm air is less dense than cooler air, decreasing the aerodynamic resistance the riders encounter.

Additionally, this may be the only place in London where the competitors are rooting for rain. It wouldn't have a direct effect, as it's an indoor venue, but increased humidity (perhaps counterintuitively) also decreases air density.

What's more, spectators enter the arena through a system of airlocks to not only keep the climate as consistent as possible, but also to keep the air perfectly still.

We're used to thinking of the bikes as the highest-tech object in a cycling event. Here in London, the track itself might take that title.