Olympic silver medallist and 2014 British Cycling National Time Trial Champion Emma Pooley has today announced her retirement from professional cycling.
The pint size pro is currently in Glasgow where she will race for the final time in the road race at the Commonwealth Games. Pooley will form part of the English team that are hoping to propel Lizzie Armitstead to victory.
Despite taking a back seat in cycling last year in order to complete a PHD in geotechnical engineering, Pooley has shown impressive form this season. She not only claimed the National Time Trial title, but also proved she is the strongest climber in the women’s peloton claiming three stages of the Giro Rosa.
Pooley was also present on the start line of La Course by Le Tour de France, which must have held special significance for her, considering she was part of Le Tour Entier, the group responsible for petitioning the ASO for the creation of a women’s event.
Pooley who only entered the sport at the age of 22 due to an injury caused by long distance running will return to her roots and focus on mountain running and triathlon. And judging by her impressive performance at the Lausanne Marathon last year, we have no doubt she will make her mark there as much as she did in women’s professional cycling.
On the announcement of her retirement, British Cycling president, Bob Howden paid tribute to her magnificent career:
“Emma has been a tremendous ambassador for cycling both on and off the bike and for women’s sport in general, never far from the action wherever she applied her undoubted talents.
“At British Cycling she will be long remembered as a rider who gave her all for her team and she retires with the thanks and best wishes of British Cycling and our members.
“It was back in 2005 as the organiser of the National Road Race Championships that I and many others first became aware of Emma’s talent as a bike rider; then as a solo rider for Cambridge University CC she took on the established riders and teams to finish close to the podium in fourth place.
“This kick-started a career that has seen Emma compete at the highest level both in road racing and in the time-trial; a discipline where she became Olympic silver-medallist in 2008 before going on to be World Champion in 2010, her Palmares being bolstered in this same year by becoming both the National Road Race and National Time Trial Champion.”
Also worth a read:
Interview: Emma Pooley is Back with a bang
History in the making as the inaugural La Course hits the Champs Elysees
