Top Time Trialing Tips

Starting
Warming-up properly is vital. This probably means being on the bike for at least 60 minutes before you start racing. Increase your intensity steadily aiming to be doing race pace efforts shortly before you're due to start. That way you can be going at race intensity as soon as you push off from the start line

The best strategy is to start fast and finish faster. But DON'T overcook it at the start by sprinting off. The first 45s or so of such an anaerobic effort won't hurt (especially with the pre-race adrenalin) so it's easy to go out to hard. Doing this will send you into oxygen debt and build up excessive lactic acid very quickly. Since you spend the whole race at your anaerobic threshold this won't be cleared from your system as you will be producing more lactic acid all the time. The excess will effectively lower your anaerobic threshold as you may have to dip below AT for a while in order to clear the lactate you generated by starting too hard.

Start in the big ring but on a large rear cog so you get going quickly. Be prepared to go up a few gears shortly after starting. Don't start on your biggest sprocket as the chain may skip. Have one crank at the 10 o-clock position ready to make a power-stroke.

During The Race
You are not going to have time to drink in a 10 mile TT so leave the water bottle behind. However you should drink during the warm-up to ensure adequate hydration. If you're feeling particularly aero-minded you could even take the bottle cage off.

TT's are won and lost in the final 20-30 percent of the race and in the corners. Practice taking corners as quickly as possible: this will ensure you do not have to waste energy bringing yourself up to speed again.

A general strategy of saving some effort for the last portion of the race you will enable you to finish the race in a crescendo. This is much better than doing the first half of the race at warp speed and then blowing up in near the finish. That said, an excellent TTer will have very similar split times assuming wind conditions are not different on the return leg. The skill is to learn how hard you can push yourself over the entire distance. You should have nothing left by the time you reach the end. If you can sprint for the line you didn't go hard enough during the race.

If you have a heart rate monitor make a note of your HR three miles or so from the end. This is what your TT pace should be all the way. If you're spending 10 or 15 mins reaching this you're wasting time! Make sure you warm up better.

Optimisations - Free Speed!
When it comes to equipment, the single most advantageous component are aerobars. These decrease the surface area you present to the wind by lowering your body position and bringing your arms together. An easy way of adding speed is to run slick narrow tyres (e.g. 23mm) at high pressure. Avoid potholes though! Disk wheels and tri-spokes are the next most important speed-gain toy. They are very expensive however and it's not worth investing in them when you start out. Aero hats and lycra overshoes (as modelled by Danny above) also make a difference, but a very slight one and you needn't worry if you don't have any.

You hear a lot about "optimal TT cadence" but there is little indication as to exactly what this is. Conventional wisdom suggests that time trialing is mostly a low cadence high force activity as it is difficult to maintain a high cadence in the aero position. However, Lance Armstrong's high cadence style has forced a re-think of the accepted wisdom regarding cadence. The cadence you use will be dictated by what you've trained at and your build. You can educate your body to use a particular cadence. A lighter and slimmer rider may benefit more from high cadences (e.g. 90-100 RPM) which do not require a strong peak force. A stronger and larger rider with more fast twitch muscle fibres may do better at lower cadences (e.g. 75-90 RPM).

Learn to pedal with your knees pointing inwards- this also makes you more aerodynamic. Train this way too so as to get used to it. Work on your body position. Get more experienced riders to check it out. You can shave seconds off by getting well positioned and it's much cheaper than a disk wheel!

Don't ride with your head down! You won't see where you're going and you may crash. Two riders went to hospital during a recent Varsity match because one of them rode into the other instead of overtaking...

The Road
Many flat TTs are done on "dragstrip courses" which are typically flat A roads with a lot of traffic. These produce the fastest times as you get sucked up by the traffic. Although drag-strip courses are probably more dangerous than minor roads they do have the advantage that passing vehicles will have seen you from several hundred meters away. In practice there are very few accidents on these courses.

Don't ride in the "hard shoulder" area inside the solid white line. This area contains all the grit and broken glass and you'll probably puncture. It is unlikely to be much safer and you have no where to veer into if anything goes wrong. Instead try to ride in the main lane, preferably in the fast region where the tarmac has been smoothed away by car tyres. The race will have marshals and signs so drivers will be aware of your presence as well as that of the other racers.
If it's safe move out towards the center of the road to take maximum advantage of the draft created by passing lorries. But move towards the gutter to avoid being slowed down by oncoming traffic. Ignore any irrate drivers on A roads. You have as much right to be there as they do and the police will have approved the race.