Four laps, flat out, from a standing start. The kilo, track cycling's one-kilometre time trial, has a punishing reputation. Yet Jody Cundy has been putting himself through it for decades.
"At the end of it, your legs don't want to pedal. You're fighting everything," he tells BBC Sport. "But when you get it right, it's really cool."
Cundy is king of the kilo. At the Para-cycling Track World Championships, he has been unbeaten in the event since 2006. If he wins again at this year's edition, which starts on Thursday in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, it will mark his 20th straight year in the rainbow jersey. Not bad for someone who has just turned 48.
"It's a fairly dominant run," he said. "There have been some moments where I thought it wasn't going to happen and somehow I've pulled something out of the bag. But I am getting older and the competitors are getting younger."
Some of that "trouble" comes from within the Great Britain squad. Archie Atkinson, 22, was just two when Cundy first became world champion as a cyclist, after switching sports. "One of my first races was against him," said Atkinson. "That felt pretty special." Atkinson is catching up. Last year he beat Cundy at the National Track Championships, only to be beaten in turn by Cundy at the World Championships a few months later. "I want to win," Atkinson said. "But if he wins, it's historic."
Cundy, a six-time Paralympic champion, says he does not have a plan for retirement, but qualifying for the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles will be difficult. "I'm realistic in the fact I'll be 49 when it comes to LA and I'm no spring chicken any more," he said. He also criticised the UCI, cycling's world governing body, for having "let the sport down" by hosting too few Para-cycling track competitions outside the World Championships and Paralympics.
Source: BBC Sport · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing