IT may be summer outside but riders are feeling the heat inside the Wales National Velodrome, Newport.

The British Olympic track cycling team are in town as they make their final preparations for a medal bid at Athens over the next week.

And, instead of finding the air conditioning in place after riding down from their Celtic Manor Resort base this week, the team have discovered it is just as hot inside the arena than outdoors.

That is because the heating has been switched on and the Velodrome arena temprature has been raised to 30 degrees centigrade. And it is another seven degrees hotter at a specially-converted 'boiler' room at the venue.

Former Welsh national coach Shane Sutton, now the British team manager for the sprint group, explained: "We are trying to get as close to replicating the heat we will find in Athens as we can."

Sutton also said Newport was an ideal venue for the team to get their final preparations in order instead of the Commonwealth Games velodrome in Manchester.

The Australian added: "It would have been easier to go to Manchester but you have to get that Olympic training camp going. In Manchester, they would have been going home every day, paying bills and coming back to train.

"We have to be 100 per cent focussed and we have to be totally switched on. We are on the last lap of getting ready and this week is about the team getting together."

Yesterday, the entire squad went through a dress rehearsal of their respective competitions a week before they fly out to Greece.

It was a chance for the British coaching staff to watch their riders in action and iron out any problems they find in the seven days they have in Newport.

Those in action yesterday were Sydney Olympics 1,000 metre gold medalist Jason Quearlly, Chris Hoy, who has won five golds at the World Championships since 2002 and Bradley Wiggins, this year's world champion in the 4,000m individual pursuit.