Emma Pooley, Cambridge engineering graduate, won a silver medal in the Road Cycling Women''''s Individual Time Trial at the 2008 Olympics, and was critical in her team role for her co-patriot''''s gold medal win in the Women''''s Road Race.

Emma studied engineering at Cambridge University and is a PhD student and research assistant in Zürich. She trained in Perth during Australia''''s 2006/7 and 2007/8 summers and kindly agreed to fit an email interview into her extremely busy schedule including study, work, training, and frequent international travel to compete.

1.  What is your PhD Project?

I work on the modelling of ground improvement for double-porosity clay fills. Basically I make small-scale models of lumpy clay soil layers in the
lab, and test ways to make them more stable. It''''s supposed to address a problem in the Czech Republic and Germany, where the clayey overburden from open-cast coal mines has for decades been dumped in old mines. The resulting highly-porous clay fills are very soft and unstable.
 

2. I read in The Guardian, that your bicycle was specially designed for you. Which design feature would you describe as most beautiful, or as giving you the most advantage over traditional designs?

Well, the crucial thing is that it was very small- I''''m 1.57m tall so a lot of bikes are designed with a geometry that is ridiculous for someone my size. In a tirme trial you want to be as aerodynamic as possible, which means having the handlebars so low that your back is horizontal and you can tuck your head in at the same height. The engineer at British Cycling built a set of front forks with the handlebars coming straight out of the side of the forks, so about 15cm lower than would have been possible with a traditional headset. That was crucial because it made me very aerodynamic, and it also looked pretty unusual!

3. How do the opportunities for top level female cyclists compare with those for men?

Badly! The men''''s professional cycling scene has far more investment, because it gets more media coverage (mostly because of the Tour de France, which is the only race most people hear about). So they have different levels of team, and minimum wages, and quite a lot of choice over teams to race for. There are very few women''''s teams where all the riders are paid enough to ride full-time; most female cyclists have part-time jobs or other sources of income. On the other hand, it''''s probably harder to make it into a men''''s professional team because more men take up racing in the first place. There isn''''t such strength in depth in the women''''s sport. And you could view it as, perversely, almost a good thing that most female cyclists can''''t live from their sport: many women in the sport are educated and keep up their qualifications because they have to. That''''s an advantage when your career as a sportsperson comes to an end- normally quite young compared to a "normal" job. But I still find the inequality between the genders terribly unfair.
 

4. How did you achieve long-distance coaching while you were training in Perth?

I know my coach, Tim Williams, from when I was a student in Cambridge, and he still lives there. Since I live in Switzerland, I''''m used to being coached remotely. We mostly communicate by e-mail and I''''m fairly independent anyway. I write my overall training plan, and Tim checks it. Then I let him know what I actually get done each week, in a lot of detail, and if there''''s an issue he lets me know. It sounds very relaxed but if I have an urgent question or problem I can call him or e-mail him and he''''ll get straight back to me.
 

5. What is you favourite cycling route in Western Australia so far?

Tricky... There are so many pretty back roads in the Darlington Hills. Especially early in the morning when the sun is only just coming up and you can smell the gum trees... I think probably my favourite ride or part-ride is along Mundaring Weir Road, on the way to Kalamunda. It''''s beautiful and also means I''''m nearly at the coffee stop!

Emma hopes to return to Perth in 2009