IRIS catches up with Emma Pooley to find out more about how she accidentally became a professional cyclist and how she’s used her platform to create positive change in the world of cycling and inspire women to try off-road adventures.

Hi Emma! So, you weren’t always a cyclist, what was your journey into the sport?

Cycling was a bit of an accident for me really. It started out as bad luck – I was a keen runner from early on (starting aged 11) but got injured when I was a student and had to take 6 weeks off. That was my idea of purgatory! I borrowed a road bike for some cross training, and didn’t enjoy it at all! I had the cheapest clothing and shoes I could find, and the bike was way too big for me. I was always cold and uncomfortable.

Some friends encouraged me to try triathlon and then time trialling, and in the end I got a bike that fitted me (not an easy task as a 157cm-high person; back then there weren’t so many options for smaller bike builds). There were a few friends in the Cambridge Cycling Club who really encouraged and helped me with equipment choices and learning bike handling skills. It’s a confusing sport for a newcomer, and not easy for a student (or anyone with a relatively low income) to get started because cycling apparel and equipment is so expensive. To be honest, I only stuck at cycling because it was fun to ride (and stop at cafés) with my friends in the club.

Emma Pooley pictured centre at 2014 Giro d’Italia Femminile winning Stage 9 beating Marianne Vos and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. Pooley was the eventual winner of the Mountains Classification racing for team Lotto–Belisol Ladies.

Just before moving to Switzerland to do a PhD at ETH Zürich, I did my first road races and came 4th at the British National Championship. But in a new country with a full time job, it took me a while to find my feet in terms of training – plus my first experiences of racing in Holland and Belgium were super stressful: I didn’t have the skills for those big bunches. I quit racing in favour of work and enjoying sports again. It was only thanks to my PhD supervisor Sarah Springman (an incredible sportswoman) who made it possible to work part-time and encouraged me to train and race, that I was able to try cycling again. I found a wonderful little Swiss-based team who gave me great race opportunities, a supportive environment with encouraging team staff and teammates at races, and that’s when I first started getting good results and finding my climbing strength. But it took years of working as a domestique (I learned so much from my team captains) and training at descending to get to the level where I could sometimes win myself. In retrospect, the bad luck of that running injury was sort of lucky, because it was the impetus to try a different sport. And now I love cycling as well as running!

After retiring from pro-cycling, how did you get the confidence to step off the road and onto the trails, exploring the mountains? What advice would you give women who want to go off-road?

Although I came to love cycling, I always enjoyed training more than racing and the most fun training for me was long rides in the mountains. The more adventurous and the more mountainous, the better! I think that’s because that kind of cycling felt more like trail running and mountain sports, which is where my heart really lies. I was always desperate to go for a run at the end of the road season! That’s one of the reasons I raced in triathlon after retiring from professional cycling.

Getting a mountain or gravel bike to ride trails and explore away from roads seemed like an obvious step after racing. I wanted to travel by bike, explore by bike, have adventures by bike. It took me about a year to research the frame and setup I wanted but it was worth the wait! I’ve had so many wonderful adventures on that bike, and I think it will last forever. I try to choose all my equipment and clothing so it will last as long as possible. It’s a sign of good quality and it helps to minimise consumption, which I think is really important for the environment.

As a bonus, bikepacking feels a lot like trail running to me! Both in the scenery and in the mindset and attitude of the community: super welcoming, accepting of everyone whatever their level, and with a strong drive towards appreciating and protecting the beautiful environment which makes the sport fun.

I have to say that initially I was nervous about trying to ride off-road, since I didn’t have any mountain biking skills (and I struggled already to learn road biking skills!). Some friends who encouraged me early on to just have a go were right. The thing is, there’s plenty of easy off-road riding to get started on and build up skills and confidence gradually. Try it without putting yourself under pressure to go fast or do anything dangerous, and gradually push your limits. Learning new things is fun and incredibly rewarding – it made me feel so much stronger, and proud of myself, to try things that scared me and realise I am capable of more than I thought.

My main advice would be to ride with friends (way more fun!) and / or a club or group who can help you learn skills in a safe environment. I’ve done a few MTB skills courses with my local club and it helped so much for basic skills and confidence. If you can find one near you, the School Of Rocks is a brilliant place to go for learning off-road skills with fun company.

What the most memorable and meaningful experiences cycling has given you?

In 2010 we had a great team at Cervélo (Iris was there too) and it was a fantastic season where we won so many races and had a lot of fun. That year I was also lucky enough to have a great day at the World Championships in Geelong and win the time trial. The rainbow jersey was a highlight of course, but even better was a few days later on just a little training ride. My roommate Sharon and I sneaked out super early to ride before dawn (that’s not how the national team liked us to train!) and we rolled down the great ocean road with views of the sunrise then stopped for coffee and these delicious little orange cupcakes (also not something the GB national team approved of!). It was amazing. Moments like those really stay with you forever. And of course we got into trouble, but that was quite satisfying too in a way.

The great thing about road racing is that it’s a team sport, so you can really contribute to a result for someone else. So there were lots of races where I didn’t do well at all personally, but helping a teammate win brought me a lot of joy. Like at the Tour de Montreal, Tour de l’Aude and Giro in 2009. I have so many happy memories from those days and the strong women I’m privileged to have raced with, or against.

In more recent years, travelling by bike has led to some beautiful interactions with strangers who have helped me, or fed me delicious food, or just chatted to me. I always try to speak the local language even if it’s just a few words, and that’s fun. People love to help you when you’re struggling with their language! A few years ago I was riding in Georgia, and we had got to a very remote village in the mountains and could hardly believe the guesthouse had a shower! But I couldn’t get it to work. So I went to find the lady in charge of the guesthouse (in fact I interrupted her while she was cooking dinner for everyone), in just my towel, and she came up to fix the shower. I said thank-you very much and she looked really confused, and about an hour later during dinner I realised I had muddled up the words for “thank you” and “vegetables”. No wonder she thought I was a bit strange! The veggies were very tasty though.

A few years later I stayed with a family in Peru who ran a roadside restaurant. It wasn’t a hotel, but they let me sleep there because there was nowhere else for a long way and it was already evening and cold. I was exhausted and struggling with the altitude (4000m above sea level) and they fed me the most delicious potatoes in the world and tried to understand my rusty half-forgotten Spanish. I slept in one of their spare sheds, in the middle of a huge pile of blankets like a slice of cheese in a sandwich, and the water in my bottles froze that night. The next morning when I was riding off, they gave me this fluffy alpaca teddy and I was so touched, I cried.

Those meetings on a long journey might only last a short time, but they remind me of people’s kindness and humanity.

What does participating in events like bikepacking challenges and ultra running races  mean to you and why do you think women should give them a try?

There’s something about longer and wilder competitions such as bikepacking / ultracycling, and ultrarunning, that really draws me. Partly it’s the adventure and the beauty of the surroundings, which I love. Partly it’s the calm meditative state I sometimes find in longer rides and runs.

I did my first >100km race in 2021, at the Ultra Trail Monte Rosa. Running that distance had been a goal for a while for me and despite poor preparation due to injuries and lack of time, I enjoyed it so much. It was a beautiful experience, both internally and externally. I loved being in the mountains all day, but as well as that I felt so grateful to my body for cooperating with me for what was – to be honest – a really stupid idea! It really hurt, a lot of the time, and yet I could keep putting one foot in front of another, and keep enjoying it, despite the discomfort.

So I suppose I also love events like that because I get to challenge myself. I find a deep satisfaction from trying to do something difficult and tough, and even when it doesn’t work out (like when I failed to finish UTMB in 2023) I learn something. Those events are hard, and that’s the whole point. The real win is in the pushing my limits. Rising to that challenge makes me feel stronger and more empowered, it helps me have confidence in myself, and that’s better than any medal. I know a lot of other women who participate in bikepacking and trail running events feel the same.

You’ve been outspoken on greater gender parity in cycling, and you were one of the initiators of the “Le Tour Entier” pressure group, which campaigned for a women’s race at the Tour de France. How do you feel about the creation of Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and the potential impact it could have on grassroots participation?

It’s great this is finally happening.

I strongly believe women and men should get the same opportunities, and that includes cycling (and all the other sports). The Tour de France is not my favourite bike race for many reasons BUT it does get huge amounts of media coverage and that means that the women’s draws a huge audience of people who, otherwise, might not have seen women’s cycling. It brings the sport to a much larger audience. The men’s race inspires many people to ride their bikes, and it’s important that female role models are also on the world stage. Women’s road racing is super exciting and people love watching it.

The main players we can thank for the Tour de France Femmes are both Zwift (good job!) and The Cyclists’ Alliance. TCA (with Iris as founder!) put in so much work over the long term to advocate for and improve women’s cycling. I think the whole world can be grateful to them for everything they’ve achieved, because the sport of cycling is far better for having more women’s races and more media coverage of women’s races. As well as behind the scenes all the improvements TCA has made for conditions in women’s cycling. The Tour de France Femmes is huge now, it’s amazing to watch, and that makes me so happy. It’s like we said many years ago with the Le Tour Entier campaign: if you build it, they will come!

You’re known for your homemade oatmeal-based sports nutrition, and now you wrote a recipe book! Why?! And what’s your favourite oaty bike snack?

Yes, after more than 10 years of creating snacks and innovating on recipes (and testing them on a lot of bike rides!) I finally collected them all into my book Oat To Joy! And I added a few stories from all the adventures I’ve been on, because I wanted to share some of the things I learned on the way. I think some things, like learning to be less scared riding in the peloton or downhill, can be helpful to people starting out in cycling.

Oat To Joy started out simply because I wanted to eat real food in training instead of so many processed products. Oatmeal is a balanced whole-grain, highly nutritious, easy to bake with, available locally, healthy and also not expensive! I like being creative with food so I ended up with lots of different and delicious flavour combinations.

Which one is my favourite? That depends on what snacking mood I’m in at the time, and what kind of ride or adventure… I have a whole section of savoury / salty recipes for those days when you’ve just had enough of sweet stuff and want some umami deliciousness – some even with veggies in for super healthy snacking. There’s another section of sweet recipes with more sugar, for the times when you need serious energy. But I think my all-time favourite oatmeal snack is from the “naturally sweet” recipes section, those all have fruit or honey and so they taste sweet but not too sweet, if you see what I mean. There’s no added sugar (or hardly any) in them. They’re refreshing! Anyway in the naturally sweet section I have a recipe for mini carrot cakes, kind of muffin-sized. I love carrot cake especially with orange cream cheese frosting. But I’d never take a frosted cupcake (or a slice of cake) on a ride because it would make such a mess. So for the carrot cake I had the idea to put the cream cheese frosting IN THE MIDDLE of the little cakes and bake it in. So you get an on-the-go chunk of carrot cake filled with orange cream cheese frosting and you don’t lose any frosting on the wrapper or on your pocket. They’re so tasty! And I have to say I am a little bit proud of that innovation to put the frosting in the middle.

What do you love about IRIS cycling apparel?

Everything! But the things I love best are the bib shorts: the cut is so comfortable, the padding is so well placed, the straps have the perfect fast-escape magnet clip for comfort breaks… overall by far the best cycling shorts I’ve ever worn. And maybe in a tie for most-loved IRIS feature is the general brightness and fun of the jersey designs. I love the colours and the stories behind the IRIS designs, and how cool I feel wearing them! A lot of my cycling nowadays is just commuting to the office, which isn’t always the most exciting ride. But it always brightens up my day to wear an IRIS jersey.

Follow Emma Pooley

emmapooley.net
instagram.com/pooleyemma
instagram.com/oat_to_joy_recipes
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