For the tens of thousands of pounds invested into kit development, Team GB's track sprinters are wearing £11 golf gloves at the Paris Olympics.
Emma Finucane and Katy Marchant wore white gloves in the keirin final on Thursday evening, earning third and fourth place respectively. Images seen afterwards showed their gloves were golf-specific ones, made by TaylorMade, but with the branding covered up for competition.
Cycling Weekly matched the gloves with a pair available online, TaylorMade's 'Stratus Tech', which retail for £10.99, and are filed on the UCI's approved equipment list.
Finucane first began wearing the gloves at last year's World Championships in Glasgow, where she won gold in the individual sprint.
"I think I got them from the store," the 21-year-old previously told Cycling Weekly. "I was like, 'Hey, do you have any gloves?' They're actually golf gloves.
"British Cycling have them. For the keirin, you usually wear gloves. They're actually quite nice."
In fact, wearing non-cycling-specific gloves is not a new phenomenon in British Cycling, but a tradition that dates back at least two decades.
Former GB sprinter Matt Crampton, a European keirin champion who now coaches Australia's sprint squad, said riders within the British programmes are typically responsible for providing their own gloves and shoes. Crampton and his teammates opted for baseball gloves.
"I think Jason [Kenny] used to wear Easton baseball gloves," he said. "I think we did a Nations Cup in LA, this would have been way back, in 2006 or something like that, and we bought Easton gloves. It was those gloves, and then the golf gloves were a good substitute.
"They're thin, and you want to be close to the handlebars. You don't want something really spongy where you don't have that direct contact. You'll see it's either no gloves, or very thin gloves, and very thin socks as well, so you can feel every sensation from the bike and from the wood.
"There's maybe an R&D [research and development] opportunity," Crampton added with a smile.
Track-cycling-specific gloves do exist, and are often worn by keirin racers in Japan. “When riders would go to Japan and do the invitation keirin, they’d get the Tanabe leather gloves. I ran those for a long time as well, white leather, and some of them had a carbon knuckle," Crampton said.
"Obviously there's more contact in Japan, and if you crash, you're on concrete, so there's a protective element. I remember sending a box of Japanese keirin gloves to [GB coach] Helen Scott for the riders. But they're a bit harder to get, and they're a bit expensive."
New Zealand's Ellesse Andrews were track-cycling-specific gloves when she became Olympic keirin champion on Thursday. The 24-year-old wore gloves made by 5bling, which are available on the brand's website from $65 (£50.90).
"We'd use Baden, softball or baseball gloves, thin ones," said Crampton. "I think Decathlon used to do a horse riding glove that was also a thin, tight leather glove. I remember buying those from Decathlon in Stockport a few times. They'd have cost £10 or something."
