Emma Pooley

This has been my best year yet, winning the World Championships in the time trial, and coming first in a string of races. I've grown in confidence, which is vital in a sport where you need to make decisions about when to attack. It's taken a long time for everything to come together, but this year has felt like the turning point. When I won the Flèche Wallonne in Belgium, in April, it gave me a big boost. To some extent the pressure was off afterwards, and the wins came more easily. The Flèche Wallonne finish is on a 1km climb on a 25% gradient so you literally feel like you're going to fall over backwards. I usually panic early on but this time I was patient – it was the first race I won as a grown-up, being sensible and technically smart. The whole team were racing for me so I had a lot of pressure on my shoulders, but I coped with it. This year I've been able to make improvements in my weaker areas – namely confidence and sprinting – and it's paid off. Of course none of us will know if we've made the 2012 team until just before, but I hope I'm getting myself in the right place. Exactly which areas I need to improve ahead will to some extent depend on the course, which is yet to be announced. It is likely we will want to work on my power and acceleration. Biography Born 3 October 1982, Wandsworth, London Educated Norwich School (sixth form). Cambridge University. Currently at ETH Zürich (PhD) Hobbies I really like cooking, but only making cake to be honest. When I invite people round it's soup or cheese on toast followed by lots of cake Favourite film Delicatessen Favourite book The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts Favourite band Moriarty is my favourite at the moment If I hadn't been a cyclist... I'm a research engineer in my spare time, doing a PhD Key statistics Major honours Olympic silver Beijing 2008; world time trial champion 2010 2009 record World Cup, Montreal 1st; British time trial championships, 1st 2010 record Won all nine events entered, including World time trial World time trial champs 2010 1 E Pooley 32min 48s 2 J Arndt 33:03 3 L Villumsen 33:04 4 A Neben 33:26 5 J L-Ciprelli 33:32 Current world top 5 UCI road racing 1 M Vos 1,089 pts 2 J Arndt 944 3 K Wild 919 4 E Johansson 897 5 E Pooley 822 Training I can't afford to base all my training around 2012 – I'm also a professional cyclist so I need to win races for my team outside of the Olympics. My training schedule won't be too different from what it is now – a warm-weather training camp in Spain in January, then out to Australia for two months. Racing starts in March and I'll do the same races I did this year, building up to the World Championships in September. We won't decide a schedule for 2012 for some time yet Olympic countdown April 2011 La Flèche Wallone, spring classic, Belgium Grand Prix de Suisse, Switzerland May 2011 Giro D'Italia, Italy La Coupe du Monde feminine, Montreal, Canada June 2011 British national road race championships, Newcastle, England August 2011 Grand Prix de Plouay-Bretagne, France September 2011 World road race championships, Copenhagen, Denmark 2012 schedule TBC. Probably skipping Giro D'Italia as London Olympics falls in middle of the season