"I can't wait to get home and have a pancake!" Perched on a sofa, exuding vitality, Dani King is oblivious to the stares of her fellow gym-goers. In some gyms an unguarded comment like this might get you excommunicated; but when your palmares includes three World Championships and an Olympic gold medal, you've earned the right to a healthy appetite.
I'm sitting in the lobby of Nuffield Fitness Centre talking crepes with something of a legend. It's Pancake Tuesday - hence the specific nature of her carb craving - but the real treat is the chance to get a few cycling pointers from Dani, who is here to promote the 2016 programme of sportives from Human Race.
The Nuffield centre brings new meaning to the term "pain cave". Built under and around an old railway viaduct next to the Thames, it is a cavernous complex of open brickwork and cutting edge gym equipment. We're led past squash courts, weights rooms and swimming pools glistening under vaulted brick ceilings like underground lakes.
But we're not here to sightsee, we're here to suffer. Human Race have laid on a spin session with a difference: a 30-minute blast to video footage featuring climbs from some of the UK's favourite sportives, including the recently Frenchified Dragon Ride.
As a dozen journalists saddle up and begin to sweat to the flashing lights and pulsing beat, Dani circulates among us. I'm (virtually) halfway up Rhigos when she appears at my elbow and casts a critical eye over my style.
"You need to up your cadence," she scolds, pointing at my display. It shows I'm turning 84RPM. "Between 90 and 100 is optimal," she explains.
We've each been issued a report card and she begins to fill mine out. There's nothing worse than a chatty stranger when you're suffering on the bike, but now Dani wants to know about my favoured terrain.
"Do you like hilly sportives? You look like a climber..."
There's a space on the form for recommended sportive, and Dani writes down "Dragon Ride".
My legs are killing me, and as soon as Dani moves on I surreptitiously dial the resistance on the bike down a notch. At the same time I pump up the cadence to make it look like I'm trying hard. I am trying hard, not to be sick. When will this torture end?
Finally, with Box Hill, Bwlch and a smattering of other beasts done, we are released from the cave.
After a stretch and a buffet lunch (pancakes and fruit; the fitness journos hover, circle and stare longingly, but leave a jar of Nutella untouched) I get a chance to have a quick chat with Dani in the gym foyer. Sitting back in a sofa, she's asking her friend-slash-minder for the Wifi password when I join them.
I start by asking what she's been up to recently.
"I've just spent five weeks in Australia and Qatar," she replies. "I was fourth on GC in the Tour Down Under and won the KOM jersey, so that was good for me because I've come from the track; that was my first winter riding on the road, so it was good for me to know that what I was doing was going in the right direction.
"I didn't know what to expect in terms of my racing form; I knew I was fit, but I didn't know how I would go in the races so that was good.
"So yeah, now I'm home for a few weeks and just training. I'm heading to Mallorca on the 21st of February for a media launch camp for my Wiggle High5 team - that's who I ride for on the road - and from there I'll go straight to Belgium to ride some of the Spring Classics, and sort of start the European season."
Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling is an elite women's team that dates back to 2013 in its former Wiggle Honda incarnation. They have some form in the Spring Classics, taking a one-two in the Tour of Flanders last year when Italian rising star Elisa Longo-Borghini soloed home ahead of team mate Jolien D'Hoore.
I ask Dani if she has her sights set on Flanders this year.
"Potentially, I don't know yet about Flanders," she says. "That's one of the races that's decided closer to the time. Obviously there'll be a lot of girls want to ride it so they don't select too early; they make sure they've got the best team at the time."
But there are plenty of other races in a women's calendar that is showing encouraging signs of life. "There's the Strade Bianchi," Dani lists, "which was held for the first time last year, similar to the men in terms of the gravel roads. And Flèche Wallonne, Gent-Wevelgem... I think it's really good at the moment for women's cycling that there are a lot of races being held similar to the men's now. Which is really important, because we get a lot more coverage and promotion for our racing as well."
How did you find the Tour Down Under, was the support good there?
"Yeah, it was really good actually. Our races were before the men's but it was a really well organised event, there was a lot of support. There were two criteriums which were close to the centre of Adelaide, so there were 1000s of people watching them. It was amazing, a really good event."
I ask Dani whether, given her recent KOM win in Australia, she sees future gold in them thar hills?
"Yeah, definitely - it's something I've really worked on. Obviously coming from the track it wasn't my forte in terms of riding, but I really enjoy climbing. I think it's something that I'll like to become a lot better at as I progress in road cycling. But I think at the moment my perfect terrain would be something with hills but not too long; something like Fleche Wallone. I dunno how I'd do in that last Mur climb, but you know it's just the kind of rolling terrain that would suit me perfectly at the moment."
I guess coming from the track you might have that explosive power to get up a short, sharp climb?
"Yeah, definitely; I think again something like Flanders could suit me long term, with the power climbs."
And how would you feel about the pavé, the cobbles?
"Emmm, at the moment not great, because I don't have the skills really, I haven't done it before. But I think, again, yeah it's something that suits track-based riders because it's just about being explosive and powerful, you know - putting it in a big gear and grinding it out along the cobbles, so I think it's something that I'd like to get better at."
Does her focus on road, with the Olympics around the corner, mean that Dani has turned her back on the track completely?
"Yeah, I'm just focusing on the road. My main aim is to get selected for the Rio road race. Potentially track last time, road this time so that'd be quite a story."
Dani's eyes light up as she looks ahead to a potential road and track Olympic double. Has that been done before, in women's cycling?
"I'm not sure if anyone's done that, so that'd be quite exciting! I know obviously Lizzie (Armitstead) has competed in a lot of Worlds on the track and on the road in the Commonwealth Games. But she's never done the Olympics on the track and then the road, so that may be a first."
But enough chit-chat about Olympic glory: it's time to turn the conversation to serious business. Sportives: what does Dani think of them? And remember, you're here as an ambassador for Human Race sportives...
Dani grins, and replies with enthusiasm: "I went straight into competitive cycling, but I think they're really good! Because I think a lot of people are quite nervous about riding on open roads, and I think with sportives obviously a lot of them are closed roads, and it gives people confidence they're going to be safe when they're riding.
"You know if they don't specifically have the confidence or the road skills, I think it's a great way to be able to compete with such a long distance knowing that you're not going to see a car and things like that."
Even the sportives with open roads, I chime in, I guess you're kind of eased into it with signs and feed stations...
"Exactly, definitely. So I think they're really good; and I think sportives are also really good if you don't want to compete in racing cycling. It's good to have a goal to keep you motivated to ride every day, keep active and things like that if you know you've got a sportive coming up.
"It's important to have something to train for. Like for us, with Rowe & King for example (the cycling coaching company Dani runs with her partner, Team Sky's Luke Rowe), a lot of our clients have got sportives that they want to complete, and that's a major target for them. So it's good to be able to plan their training around that specific sportive, whether it be flat, hilly, 100km, 100 miles, 200 miles..."
So that's their Rio, in a way, that sportive is their goal?
"Yeah, exactly. Like for me, I don't think I'd be able to push myself as hard as I do if i didn't have a goal, like a specific race or target."
Speaking of training, how do you go about helping an amateur cyclist looking to improve any aspect of their riding, like their climbing say?
"It's just important what your goal is. If it's purely to improve your climbing, one: there's a lot of power to weight ratio that goes into it. So the lighter you are, the faster you're gonna go up the climb."
So you should just save up for a lighter bike?
"Um, yeah... But then, you know, pedal efficiency, not going too hard too early, making sure you know the length of the climb. So, if it's a 10-minute climb and you're going balls out for the first minute then chances are you're gonna blow and go backwards for the last 9. So i think it's important to know the length of a climb and really measure your effort out throughout the climb."
Ok, so do your homework...?
"Yeah, definitely. I think it's really important to know what you've got coming up. Like if you've got a really important race you might go out and ride parts of the course before. I think you've got a massive advantage knowing what you've got coming up; where, you know, the important climbs are, where you can recover, and where you can really afford to put the power down."
And finally then, will we be seeing you out at the Dragon Ride, or any of Human Race's sportives?
"I could potentially think about the Dragon Ride! It's obviously quite close to me, and I think the route is incredible. I train around there and I know some of the climbs are pretty tough."
Do you have a favourite climb?
"I really like the Bwlch actually, yeah that's quite a good one I think. The side I go up's not as hard as the other side (that features in the Dragon Ride), but I think it's about 10 minutes long altogether."
The conversation takes a brief diversion into discussion of the Devil's Elbow - another of the Dragon's signature climbs. She calls over to her friend to ask where it is. "Ah..." she says as he describes the gradient, "no I haven't done that one..."
She sounds almost rueful about the unconquered climb. As we wrap up our chat, I get the feeling she's going to hunt it down the minute she gets back to Cardiff.
Right after she's had that pancake...
Dani King is an ambassador of the Human Race cycle sportive series which includes well known rides such as Lionheart, Dragon Ride and Chiltern 100. To enter a sportive visit www.humanrace.co.uk.
Thinking of tackling the Dragon Ride this June? Human Race are offering Sportive.com readers a 20% discount on the entry fee!
Sign up here: humanrace.co.uk/event/dragon-ride and use the code SPORTIVECOM to claim the discount.
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