Tag Archives: pooley

British trio to join Honda"s Dream Team Professional Cycling

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Sky's the limit as British cycling trio join women's Honda team hoping to emulate men

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UPDATED:

20:10 GMT, 5 November 2012

Olympic champions Joanna Rowsell, Laura Trott and Dani King will be part of an elite road cycling team who will try to match the achievements of Team Sky in the men’s sport.

The trio, who won the team pursuit at London 2012, are joining Honda’s Dream Team Professional Cycling and will race against the top riders in 2013. The team will be led by Italy’s double world champion Giorgia Bronzini.

Meanwhile, Britain's former world champion and Olympic medalist Emma Pooley has joined Swiss team Bigla Cycling for the 2013 season.

Wheely bright future: Laura Trott, Danielle King and Joanna Rowsell will be part of Honda's Dream Team Professional Cycling

Wheely bright future: Laura Trott, Danielle King and Joanna Rowsell will be part of Honda's Dream Team Professional Cycling

Pooley won silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was the 2010 time-trial world champion, while at this summer's London Olympics she helped Great Britain team-mate Lizzie Armitstead to silver in the road race.

With her former team AA Drink-leontien.nl set to disband at the end of the season due to a lack of financial backing, Pooley had contemplated taking an extended break from the sport to focus to finishing her PhD in geotechnical engineering.

However, the 30-year-old is now relishing the chance to link up with Bigla as well as continuing with her studies over the winter.

She told British Cycling: 'I'm looking forward to this new challenge and I'll do my best to help the young riders on the Bigla team to make the step up.

'I've raced against a lot of them in local races in Switzerland and I can see how talented they are. We will be a force to be reckoned with in 2013.'

London Olympics 2012 Emma Pooley fears she will not repeat Beijing heroics

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Petite Pooley's course for concern as Brit fears she won't repeat Beijing time-trial heroics

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UPDATED:

16:33 GMT, 31 July 2012

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Beijing medallist Emma Pooley believes the London 2012 Olympic Games time-trial course at Hampton Court hampers her hopes of another podium place.

The 29-year-old, who was born in London and finished second in the time-trial four years' ago, favours an undulating route, but the flat nature of the 29-kilometre course is more beneficial to bigger, more powerful riders.

The petite Pooley, a formidable climber who joked about taking advantage of her fondness for chocolate and cheese in an effort to try to put on weight to increase her chances, won the World Championships time-trial in Melbourne in 2010 and 12 months later finished third in Copenhagen as Germany's Judith Arndt triumphed.

'Ever since Beijing the time-trial has been my thing,' Pooley said.

Flat out: Emma Pooley fears she will not be in the medals

Flat out: Emma Pooley fears she will not be in the medals

'I was really pleased last year at the World Championships, because it was a flat course and I surprised myself by doing better than I expected.

'I want to win it and I want to get a medal at least, but I can't say that I will because others might be better.

'I don't want to sound like a whinging loser, but it's not the ideal course for me. There's no way I can turn my physiology from being small to being a big, powerful rider.

Full focus: Pooley will be giving it her all

Full focus: Pooley will be giving it her all

'It's not an ideal course. I don't need a mountain, but up and down is definitely better for me.

'I've trained for that kind of course and I'll do my best; I'm quite happy with how I've been training.

'I will ride my absolute best and give it everything. That's all you can do in a time-trial.'

Pooley
was beaten by Kristin Armstrong of the United States in China and the
American is again likely to be in contention, while Arndt, world silver
medallist Linda Villumsen of New Zealand and Clara Hughes of Canada are
also set to be in contention.

Lizzie
Armitstead, who on Sunday claimed Britain's first medal of the Games
with silver in the road race, following strong support from Pooley, is
also set to ride and has an outside medal chance.

'I'm looking forward to riding an event without any pressure and enjoying being pushed round by the crowd,' Armitstead said.

'Time-trials aren't really my forte, but it's something that I will probably look to work on in the future.'

On Armitstead, Pooley added: 'I think she might be a surprise in the time-trial.'