The time trial day: Like no other

Chris Froome, Tour de France 2013, stage 11 TT

A time trial day is very different for the riders - because everyone starts at different times, each of them is on an individual schedule. Pinned up at the Team Sky bus was a table of what time every rider was to leave the hotel, arrive at the bus, have their bike put on the turbo trainer, start their warm up, finish their warm up, ride to the start house and, finally, when they were to roll down the ramp.

Most of the riders spent exactly 25 minutes on the trainer. Chris Froome started his warm-up just over a minute early... and he finished it a minute early as well.

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Michael Hutchinson is a writer, journalist and former professional cyclist. As a rider he won multiple national titles in both Britain and Ireland and competed at the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games. He was a three-time Brompton folding-bike World Champion, and once hit 73 mph riding down a hill in Wales. His Dr Hutch columns appears in every issue of Cycling Weekly magazine