We knocked Smiley off his bike, shot him full of sodium pentathol, and got in five questions before he came to.

Quivering Masses: How do you warm up? Do you try to hit a certain HR, and for how long?

TT King: The key to the warm up is to warm the muscles and increase blood flow. This is pretty simple just ride at a comfortable endurance type pace, not coasting along, but a comfortable pace. The trick with a TT, is that you are above threshold the entire race. So your warm up needs to include some medium length efforts at about threshold pace. This will start the lactate clearing process in your body before you are actually racing.

So a structure would look like,

10-15 mins at endurance HR levels

3 mins @ tempo HR levels

5 mins @ endurance

3 mins @ threshold HR levels

5 mins @ endurance

3 mins @ threshold HR levels

5 mins @ endurance

Then head off to the start with about 10 mins to spare so as you are relaxed and ready to go when your time is up.

QM: We all know not to start too hard. Any other tips on the start? Is there a different cadence for the start? Is there a sensation you shoot for during the start, or do you have a speed in mind?

TTK: The sensations you should feel is a solid fast start, but completely under control. You know you’re giving a powerful start, but you also feel like you have another 10% to give – in a way you’re holding yourself back for a minute or so.

I advise to start the race by riding 1 gear too heavy or heavier than feels right – this ensures you ride fast (you’re in a big gear) but also helps to slow the rate at which your heart rate increases… after about a minute, go back to proper gearing.

QM: How do you tackle the hill – seated or standing? Aerobars or not? How do you gauge your effort on the hill, by feel, speed?

TTK: Definitely by feel, it’s important not blow up, so feel. Generally out of the aerobars, and standing for the 2nd half so as not to slow too much. If you stay seated, you tend to, but not always, ride a little slower.

QM: How hard do you work on downhills?

TT King: The main downhill in Central Park is the downhill into the swimming pool section. My advice is to get down the hill without crashing, and don’t worry too much about speed. You’ll get a much faster time by getting down the hill fast, but not with effort – as opposed to as hard as possible, and crashing.

QM: Do you try to diesel your way through at about the same power, or do you attack and rest depending on the terrain?

TTK: For a rolling course like Central Park, it’s attack and rest. It’s a tough course to get into a steady tempo, so it’s best to use the course and the speed it gives you.