Success can be defined as the accomplishment of an objective or purpose and when analysing 2005, Emma Pooley has a remarkable success story to tell. From an educational perspective, she graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in engineering. In cycle racing, she has gone from being a complete novice and unknown at road racing, to finishing fourth in the National Championships (in only her fourth race) just behind Nicole Cooke, the Commonwealth Games Champion and ahead of many seasoned international riders. A tremendous ride that was to be the catalyst for Emma's selection for Great Britain at the Women's World Road Race Championships in Madrid.
Emma Pooley
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Emma grew up with her younger brother and sister just outside of Norwich, in Norfolk. Her family have an adventurous and sporting background. “Dad does a lot of running and swimming to keep himself fit, my brother runs too, Mum loves skiing and my sister is into rowing. We are an outdoors type of family, as you can imagine we used to go on plenty of camping trips.”
After completing her schooling in Norwich, Emma was accepted into Cambridge University and read mathematics in her first year at Trinity Hall. “In my second year I changed to engineering, which is what I graduated in, specialising in civil engineering”
Emma describes student life at Cambridge as being “hard but good fun, quite stressful, although that's quite good sometimes. There were lots of sports clubs and lots of opportunities to try out new sports.”
“I was really into the running club at Cambridge, then got injured, which is when I took up cycling and triathlon. I ran quite seriously at school. Well I thought it was quite serious, mostly training on my own and the difference at Cambridge was that there was always a club to train with. It was brilliant, so much better being able to train with other people, more fun and the competitive element meant you were extended in your efforts. I improved a lot in my first year.”
Emma's first Cambridge Blue, a much-coveted and prestigious prize earned by sportsmen and women at Cambride University when competing against Oxford University, was in triathlon. In 2003 Emma earned her international spurs when representing Great Britain at the World Triathlon (Age Related) Championships in Queenstown, New Zealand. Further Cambridge sporting honours followed, “I also received a blue in running last year (2004) and I've just received one for cycling.”
With her academic studies and sporting activities high up on her list of priorities, did Emma find time to take advantage of the University's social life? “I did a little bit, most of my friends were actually runners or cyclists, there was the odd party. You can't do everything all the time, so I probably did a bit less drinking than some people. Having a lower tolerance level to alcohol due to my fitness actually meant I saved money, it only took me a couple of glasses of wine to get tipsy.”
Emma Pooley
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With final University exams out of the way, the week preceding British Cycling's Road Race Championships should have been low key for the quiet Norfolk student. However it was party week at Cambridge. “I didn't get much sleep that week. Additionally, I drove up to the race in North Yorkshire the night before, arriving at 1.00am. I slept in my car, the worst race preparation I have ever had. Sensibly, I probably should not have bothered with the race because I was tired from the partying and should not have driven so late, but looking back I'm glad that I did.”
Pooley describes the 106 kilometre Championship event as being “brilliant, such fun.” Her strength and raw talent ensured she made the select lead group of five riders during the hilly race. “In some ways I think it's easier to come in as an unknown because you don't have any expectations. I didn't really recognise the riders, I had heard of Nicole Cooke, but other than that I didn't know who I was riding with in the group. I did my first ever road race in April, hence I just didn't know the scene at all, it was unexpected.”
Her amazing ride at the National's led to Emma being approached to join the professional female cycling squad, Team Fat Birds UK (FBUK). The team's name originates from one of its sponsors, a shop in Hunstanton called 'Fat Birds Don't Fly'. Pooley explains that the owners surname is Bird and the team's name causes a few raised eyebrows wherever they race. One example of a good variation on the name was in Italy last summer. “When announcing the results, the Italian race organiser either got it wrong, or was too scared to call us 'Fatbirds'. He politely referred to us as Fit-birds UK, which I thought was quite amusing.”
Within cycle racing, the talented 23 year old rider has grown to admire and respect “the people I know because I can see what it's like for them. For example at the National's, the size of my bike frame meant I could only take one water bottle, inevitably I ran out of water. [International Rider] Rachel Heal recognised this and got me a bottle from her support crew, which was pretty nice as she didn't know me at the time. It's really nice to be able to take your racing seriously and at the same time do something generous, I was really impressed by that.”
FBUK team in action
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After her unforeseen fourth place at the National's and a number of other strong road race performances, including a ride at the World Cup in Wales, Emma was selected for the 126 kilometre World Championship race in Madrid, at the end of September. Unfortunately she crashed out of the race and is rather self critical of her performance. “The crash was a bit embarrassing really. It was entirely my fault. I was just really disappointed because I knew there were some people who had been saying that someone with so little experience should not be entered into such a big race. There were plenty of girls who wanted to be selected and I was justifying their argument by crashing, I was annoyed with myself.”
Since August, Emma has been based in Zurich working towards a three year PhD course in soil engineering. The work involves research on the modelling of ground improvements, specifically ways of improving ground in landfill sites in the Czech Republic. “It's an aspect of engineering that hardly anyone has heard of, however, there are a lot of us around. Anytime anyone constructs something, the ground has to be examined.”
“It's quite hard leaving the UK in some ways, but it's good fun. I'm glad I moved because I wanted to try living in another country. As I'm originally from East Anglia [where the lie of the land is relatively flat] the countryside here in Zurich is amazing. There are some pretty big hills round here and it's only and hour on the train to the Alps.” She joined a local Swiss cycling club when she arrived in August, unfortunately “they don't really ride in the winter. A lot of them ski instead, there's just so much snow here.”
When questioned how she maintains her fitness during the winter, Emma reveals the diversity of her cross-training. “I ride the indoor turbo-trainer and try to do some long rides when it's not too cold to go out. I also do a bit of running, weights in the gym, circuit training and a little cross-country skiing. I'm just trying not to put too much weight on in the winter basically.”
Other than running, triathlons and cycling, Emma is also keen on “outdoors stuff really, swimming, walking, skiing. I have a boyfriend who gets dragged along to most of that.”
In 2006, Emma will essentially race the European events that her team, FBUK, plan to enter. “The races are mainly in Holland and Belgium which is pretty well served by trains from here [Zurich]. My supervisor is really supportive and I can probably get an afternoon off to get a train to a race and then do a bit of extra reading in my spare time to make up for it.”
It is evident that this modest Cambridge graduate will further extend her learning curve in terms of her cycling knowledge, racing experience and her academic research. For someone who has the desire, talent, intelligence and application to succeed, Emma Pooley's future on and off the bike looks very promising.
Brett Travers www.Brett-Travers.com
For more info on Team FBUK go to
www.teamfbuk.com
