Emma Pooley

Emma Pooley

Pooley after winning the 2009 Montreal World Cup
Personal information
Full name Emma Jane Pooley
Born (1982-10-03) 3 October 1982
Wandsworth, England, United Kingdom
Height 1.57 m (5 ft 2 in)[1]
Weight 48 kg (106 lb)[1]
Team information
Current team Lotto–Soudal Ladies
Discipline Road
Rider type Climber, time trialist
Amateur team(s)
2005 Cambridge University CC
Professional team(s)
2006 Team FBUK
2007–2008 Team Specialized Designs for Women
2009–2010 Cervélo TestTeam
2011 Garmin–Cervélo
2012 AA Drink-Leontien.nl
2013 Bigla Cycling Team
2014 Lotto–Belisol Ladies
2016– Lotto–Soudal Ladies
Major wins

Stage Races

Tour de l'Aude (2010)
Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale (2009)
Giro del Trentino Alto Adige-Südtirol (2010)
Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l'Ardèche (2011, 2012)
Tour languedoc roussillon feminin (2013)
Tour de Bretagne Féminin (2008)

Single-Day Races

UCI Women's Road World Cup
Trofeo Alfredo Binda (2008, 2011)
Coupe du Monde de Montréal (2009)
GP de Plouay (2009, 2010)
La Flèche Wallonne Féminine (2010)
UCI Single Day Races
Grand Prix Elsy Jacobs (2010)
Grand Prix De Suisse (2010)
Gp Costa Etrusca - Giro Dei Comuni Rosignano-livorno (2009)
National Road Race Champion
(2010)
National Time Trial Champion
(2009, 2010, 2014)
Infobox last updated on
3 August 2014

Emma Jane Pooley (born 3 October 1982)[2] is an elite English sportswoman. A former professional cyclist who specialised in time trials and hilly races at the highest level, she transferred her skills to endurance running, duathlon and triathlon, and is currently a professional triathlete, and the reigning double world champion in long distance duathlon.

She won an Olympic silver medal in the time trial in 2008 and was world time trial champion in 2010. She has won six UCI Women's Road World Cup one-day races, as well as several stage races including the ten-day Tour de l'Aude. She is three-times a British time trial champion and in 2010 also won the British road race championships.

Pooley retired from professional cycling after the 2014 Commonwealth Games to concentrate on triathlon, duathlon and long-distance running, having won the Lausanne Marathon and the Swissman triathlon the previous year. On 16 December 2015,[3] Pooley announced that she would be returning temporarily to cycling, seeking to qualify to represent Great Britain at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, as she felt the unusually mountainous time trial course on offer played to her strengths

In June 2016, Pooley came out of retirement and re-signed for her former team, Lotto–Soudal Ladies, in time for the 2016 Giro Rosa.[4]

Early life

Born in Wandsworth, London,[5][6] Pooley grew up in Norwich, where she attended Norwich High School for Girls[7] and the sixth form of Norwich School.[8] She began studying for an engineering degree at Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 2001.[9][10]

She started cycling at university after suffering an injury from cross-country running. At Cambridge she won her university sporting blue for cross-country running and the triathlon.[11]

Cycling career

2005 to 2008

After a surprise fourth place in the national road championship in 2005, she was signed by UK national team Team Fat Birds UK[5][12] and rode in the British team supporting Nicole Cooke in the road race at that year's world championships, but crashed out of the race.[13] She rode for the same trade team in 2006 when they were based in Belgium and registered as an international-level UCI Women's Team under the name Team FBUK.

She signed with the Switzerland-based Team Specialized Designs for Women for 2007, with whom she won her first UCI race, stage 3 of the Thüringen Rundfahrt der Frauen, after a 120 km solo escape, the first of many wins from solo breakaways.[13] She represented Britain in the 2007 UCI Road World Championships, finishing 8th in the time trial[14] and 9th in the road race. This earned Great Britain one of their places in the 2008 Summer Olympics.

In 2008, she won the Trofeo Alfredo Binda UCI Road World Cup in Italy after another solo breakaway.[13] She finished 23rd in the Olympic road race on 11 August 2008, where she rode in support of Nicole Cooke's successful gold medal bid[15] but her greatest success of the summer came in the time trial on 13 August, where she won the silver medal behind American Kristin Armstrong.

2009 to 2012

Pooley (with Sharon Laws behind) during the 2009 UCI Road World Championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland

In 2009, Pooley signed to the Cervélo Test Team,[16] where she remained until their disbandment at the end of 2011. She won the 2009 national time trial championships and took wins for the team in the Coupe du Monde de Montreal, GP de Plouay, and Grand Prix Costa Etrusca one-day races, and the final edition of the Grande Boucle Féminine, once dubbed "the women's Tour de France".[17] Due to financial issues the 2009 Grand Boucle was reduced to only four stages, leading Pooley to joke that it was "more of a Petite Boucle than Grande".[18] She also wore the leader's jersey for three stages of the Giro d'Italia Femminile, but finished the race in fourth place in the general classification after losing the race lead due to her poor descending, which she improved after the 2009 season with the help of her coach Tim Williams and British Cycling psychiatrist Steve Peters.[13]

2010 saw several of Pooley's greatest successes.[19] She won her first major stage race in May, the final edition of the Tour de l'Aude,[20] the longest-running event on the UCI women's calendar.[21] She went on to win another top-level stage race in June, the Giro del Trentino Alto Adige-Südtirol. She also won two UCI Women's Road World Cup one-day races, the La Flèche Wallonne Féminine and the GP de Plouay, and earned a rainbow jersey by winning the time trial at the Road World Championships.[22] She was British national time trial champion for the second year running and also took her only national road race champion's jersey. She finished the year 5th in the 2010 UCI Women's Road World Rankings, the highest end-of-year ranking of her cycling career, and received one of the British Olympic Association's Athlete of the Year trophies, recognising her performance that year as the best by any British cyclist of either sex in any Olympic cycling discipline.[23]

Pooley competing in the 2012 Olympics time trial in London

In March 2011, Pooley won the one-day Trofeo Alfredo Binda World Cup race for a second time, again after a lengthy lone breakaway. She broke her collarbone in training on 12 April so was unable to defend her Flèche Wallonne title and did not race again until the women's invitational time trial at the Tour of California on 20 May,[24] in which she placed fifth. Later in the year, however, she won the hilly Tour de l'Ardèche stage race in France and finished second to Marianne Vos in the Giro d'Italia Femminile, both achievements that she would repeat in 2012.

Following the discontinuation of the Garmin Cervélo women's team at the end of 2011, Pooley began riding for the Dutch team AA Drink-Leontien.nl[25] which, in turn, wound up at the end of the 2012 season. At the 2012 Summer Olympics she competed in the Women's road race, helping teammate Lizzie Armitstead to win a silver medal,[26] and placed sixth in the Women's time trial.

2013 to 2014

Pooley took a step back from pro-racing when she signed for the long-established, but non-UCI registered, Swiss-based Bigla Cycling Team for the 2013 season[27] in order to concentrate on completing her PhD in geotechnical engineering. In a severely reduced season, she missed the 2013 UCI Road World Championships.[28] Pooley managed to win four UCI-ranked races including the six-stage Tour Languedoc Rousillon in May.

Pooley signed for the Lotto Belisol team for 2014.[29][30] She claimed her third national time trial champion's jersey and won three stages and the mountains classification at the Giro d'Italia Femminile.

Pooley announced during the 2014 Commonwealth Games that she would retire from cycling after competing in the Games' road race[31] in order to concentrate on competing in long distance triathlons and mountain running.[32] Following her retirement announcement, Pooley took the silver medals in both the women's road time trial[33] and road race, and played a key role in helping England teammate Lizzie Armitstead win the road race gold medal.[34]

2015 to 2016

Pooley made a return to competitive cycling in October 2015 when she competed at the Chrono des Nations time trial, where she finished sixth.[35] In December 2015 she announced that she would aim to compete for Team GB in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after being approached by British Cycling's technical director Shane Sutton, who had studied the Olympic road racing courses and felt that Pooley would have a good chance of winning a medal in the time trial and of helping Lizzie Armitstead to win the road race. She also confirmed that she would continue to compete in triathlon and duathlon competitions in 2016.[36] Pooley made her first appearance in a mass start road race for two years in April 2016 for the British national team at the Women's Tour de Yorkshire, where she helped team-mate Alice Barnes to fourth place.[37] In June 2016 Lotto–Soudal Ladies announced that Pooley had rejoined the team for the remainder of the 2016 season, and that she would be part of the team's squad for the 2016 Giro d'Italia Femminile with a role as a domestique for Claudia Lichtenberg.[38] At the Olympics, Pooley rode in the service of Armitstead in the road race, whilst in the time trial she finished 14th, just over two minutes down on winner Kristen Armstrong.[39]

Running and triathlon career

As well as her cycling, she proved herself as a top level marathon runner when she won the Lausanne Marathon in October 2013 with a time of 2:44:29 hours, which placed her inside the top 20 fastest British women in 2013.[40] She has also enjoyed success in triathlon, finishing as top female at the inaugural Swissman triathlon and coming fifth in the Ironman Zurich event.[41] After her retirement from cycling she won the 2014 Powerman Duathlon World Championships in Zofingen, Switzerland at her first attempt, setting a new course record and finishing half an hour ahead of the second-placed finisher.[42]

In February 2015 Pooley won the Challenge Philippines triathlon with a margin of more than ten minutes over the next competitor.[43] She went on to finish ninth at the Ironman Asia-Pacific Championships in Melbourne the following month.[44] Subsequently in the summer Pooley won the long course race at the Alpe d'Huez Triathlon[45] and the Embrunman triathlon,[46] and successfully defended her Duathlon world title in September.[47]

In March 2016 Pooley took a comfortable win at the Powerman Asia Duathlon Championships in Malaysia, where she finished with a 16-minute lead over the runner up.[48] Following her appearance at the 2016 Olympics, in September she took her third consecutive long-distance duathlon world title with a winning margin of eleven minutes.[49]

University Challenge

On 2 January 2015 Pooley was a member of the winning team on Christmas University Challenge, representing Trinity Hall, Cambridge who defeated Balliol College, Oxford, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Hull. Her teammates were international rower Tom James, novelist Adam Mars-Jones and actor Dan Starkey.[50]

Personal life

Pooley has lived in or near Zurich in Switzerland since 2006, and in December 2013 completed her PhD in geotechnical engineering at ETH Zurich, supervised by Sarah Springman, a former British triathlete who is a vice-president of the International Triathlon Union.[9][13][51] She received an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law from the University of East Anglia in July 2012.[52]

Palmarès

2005
4th British National Road Race Championships
2006
3rd Rund Um die Rigi – Gersau (SUI)
2007
1st Rund um Schönaich (GER)
3rd overall Grande Boucle Féminine (FRA)
1st Stage 3 Thüringen Rundfahrt der Frauen, Greiz (GER)
6th British National Road Race Championships
8th Time Trial, 2007 Road World Championships
9th Road Race, 2007 Road World Championships
2008
1st Perth Criterium Series (AUS)
1st Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio
2nd Villingen Schwenningen (GER)
2nd British National Road Race Championships
1st Stage 6 Ras de Cymru (GBR)
1st overall Tour Féminin de Bretagne (FRA)
1st Stage 3
1st Stage 4 (time trial)
2nd Time Trial, 2008 Summer Olympics
2nd Tour Cycliste Féminin International Ardèche (FRA)
1st Stage 4
8th World Time Trial Championships
2009 Cervélo TestTeam 2009 season
1st Neujahrsmarathon Zurich, 10k run
1st GP Costa Etrusca (ITA)
1st Coupe du Monde Cycliste Féminine de Montréal
1st Grande Boucle Féminine
1st Stage 1 TT
1st Stage 3
1st GP de Plouay-Bretagne (FRA) World Cup
4th overall Giro d'Italia Femminile
3rd British National Road Race Championships
1st United Kingdom National Time Trial Championships
2010
1st La Flèche Wallonne Féminine (Waalse Pijl) (BEL)
1st Grand Prix de Suisse TT
1st Grand Prix Elsy Jacobs
1st Yellow jersey Overall Tour de l'Aude
1st Mountains classification
1st Stage 7
1st Overall Giro del Trentino Alto Adige-Südtirol
1st Stage 1
1st United Kingdom National Road Race Championships
1st GP de Plouay-Bretagne (FRA) World Cup
1st Green jersey Mountains classification Giro d'Italia Femminile
1st United Kingdom National Time Trial Championships
1st UCI Road World Championships – time trial
2011
3rd UCI Road World Championship – time trial
1st Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio
1st Stage 3 Iurreta Emakumeen Bira
2nd Overall Giro d'Italia Femminile
1st Stage 8
1st Mountains classification Thüringen Rundfahrt der Frauen
1st Stage 4
1st Overall Tour de l'Ardèche
1st Stage 3
2012 AA Drink-leontien.nl 2012 season
1st Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria
1st Stage 2 Emakumeen Bira
2nd Overall Giro d'Italia Femminile
1st Green jersey Mountains classification
3rd Overall Giro del Trentino Alto Adige – Südtirol
1st Overall Tour de l'Ardèche
1st Stages 3 & 6
6th Time Trial, 2012 Summer Olympics
3rd Team time trial, 2012 UCI Road World Championships
4th Individual time trial, 2012 UCI Road World Championships
2nd Lucerne Marathon
2013
3rd Overall, Gracia-Orlová
1st Overall Tour Languedoc Roussillon
1st Stage 3
2nd Overall Tour de Feminin-O cenu Českého Švýcarska
1st Stages 3 & 5
1st Swissman Xtreme Triathlon
5th Ironman Switzerland
1st Zürcher Oberlander Berglaufcup
1st Türlerseelauf
1st Lausanne Marathon
6th Jungfrau Marathon
2014
2014 Commonwealth Games
2nd Time Trial[33]
2nd Road Race
3rd Challenge Philippines[53]
7th La Flèche Wallonne[54]
2nd Rapperswil 70.3
1st United Kingdom National Time Trial Championships
1st Stages 6, 8 & 9 Giro d'Italia Femminile
1st Green jersey Mountains classification[55]
1st Powerman Duathlon World Championships
2015
1st Challenge Philippines
9th Ironman Asia-Pacific Championships
3rd Ironman France[56]
1st Alpe d'Huez Triathlon Long course race
1st Embrunman
1st Powerman Duathlon World Championships
5th Ironman Wales[57]
6th Chrono des Nations
2016
1st Powerman Asia Duathlon Championships
1st Powerman Duathlon World Championships
1st Taiwan KOM Challenge[58]

References

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  2. "Emma Pooley". Cycling Website.
  3. Pooley announces return for Rio from bbc.co.uk/sport
  4. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/pooley-signs-with-lotto-soudal-ladies/?utm_content=bufferbdb97&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
  5. 1 2 Andrew Canning (31 July 2008). "GB RIDER PROFILE: EMMA POOLEY". Cycling Weekly.
  6. Ian Chadband (13 August 2008). "Pooley shows her motion slickness". Evening Standard.
  7. Bailey, Michael (5 August 2011). "Get behind our London 2012 Olympics hopefuls". Eastern Daily Press. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  8. "Emma Pooley (ON 2001) wins silver in Beijing". Norwich School. 15 August 2008. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
  9. 1 2 Shaun Lowthorpe (13 August 2008). "Norwich cyclist wins Olympic medal". EDP24.
  10. "Four Engineering alumni at the Beijing Olympics". Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. 4 August 2008. Archived from the original on 26 September 2008.
  11. Travers, Brett (20 March 2006). "Emma Pooley: Engineering Her Future Success!". shecycles.com. Archived from the original on 5 July 2008.
  12. Larry Hickmont (July 2005). "Talking to Rising Star Emma Pooley". Cycling weekly.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 Pickering, Edward (28 March 2011). "Interview: The Pooley Paradox". Cycle Sport.
  14. "POOLEY TAKES EIGHTH IN WORLD'S TT DEBUT". Cycling Weekly. 26 September 2007.
  15. "Pooley takes silver in time trial". BBC Sport. 13 August 2008.
  16. Womenscycling.net (2 November 2009). "Cervelo Lifeforce Signs 'Likeable' Emma Pooley". Womenscycling.net.
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  25. Atkins, Ben (30 December 2011). "Emma Pooley confirmed with AA Drink-Leontien.nl, other Garmin-Cervelo women also linked". VeloNation. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
  26. Fotheringham, William (29 July 2012). "London 2012: Lizzie Armitstead strikes Olympic silver on a soggy Mall". The Guardian.
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  33. 1 2 Cary, Tom (31 July 2014). "Emma Pooley takes silver for England in the Commonwealth Games time trial". The Telegraph. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
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  35. "Antoshina wins Chrono des Nations". cyclingnews.com. 18 October 2015. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
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  42. Thompson, Anna (9 September 2014). "Emma Pooley wins the world duathlon title at first attempt". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
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  44. "IRONMAN Drama in Melbourne". World Triathlon Corporation. 22 March 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  45. Hichens, Liz (31 July 2015). "Guilloux, Pooley Victorious At Alp De Huez Triathlon". triathlon.com. Competitor Group, Inc. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  46. Smadja, Valérie (16 August 2015). "VIDEO. Triathlon d'Embrun: victoire du Croate Andrej Vistica" [VIDEO: Embrun Triathlon: victory of Croat Andrej Vistica]. France 3 Rhône-Alpes (in French). Retrieved 19 December 2015.
  47. "Pooley and Le Bellec top again - short version". Powerman Duathlon. 6 September 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  48. Mason, Aaron (10 March 2016). "Emma Pooley wins Powerman Asia Duathlon Championships". Cambridge News. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  49. "Emma Pooley wins her third consecutive ITU Powerman Long Distance Duathlon World Championship". British Triathlon Federation. 5 September 2016. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
  50. "University Challenge Victory". Trinity Hall, Cambridge. 2 January 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  51. Williams, Ollie (28 June 2012). "Emma Pooley: The thinking person's road cyclist". BBC Sport.
  52. "University of East Anglia unveils 2012 honorary graduates". UEA.ac.uk. 16 May 2012. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
  53. "Emma Pooley 3rd at Challenge Philippines". beyondgoinglong.co.uk. 22 February 2014. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  54. Cary, Tom (23 April 2014). "Lizzie Armitstead extends World Cup lead with second place". The Daily Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  55. "Giro Rosa: Emma Pooley's stage win, Marianne Vos overall winner". bbc.co.uk. 13 July 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  56. Boch, Volker (28 June 2015). "Stein and Snow Bring the Heat to France". World Triathlon Corporation. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  57. Boch, Volker (13 September 2015). "Thomas and Beranek Storm Away in Wales". World Triathlon Corporation. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  58. "Pooley wins Taiwan KOM Challenge". cyclingnews.com. 2 November 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
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