Emma Pooley emulated her Great Britain team-mate Nicole Cooke with victory in the Grande Boucle Feminine - the women’s Tour de France - at the weekend.

Pooley, who won silver in the Olympic time-trial last year, clinched overall victory by 22 seconds ahead of Christiane Soeder, her Cervelo Test Team colleague from Austria, and Marianne Vos, of the Netherlands, in the four-stage race.

The 27-year-old from London won the individual time-trial on day one and triumphed in stage three by 20 seconds on Saturday. Vos won Sunday’s hilly final stage into Anglet, but Pooley finished fourth to secure the overall win and match Cooke’s triumphs in 2006 and 2007.

“The Grande Boucle is a special race with a big history and I'm very happy to win it," Pooley said. "My next goal will be the National Championships next weekend and after that the Giro d'Italia. I am looking forward to it.”

Cooke, the world and Olympic road race champion who races for Vision 1 Racing, won the Giro del Trentino in Italy on Friday.

Fabian Cancellara, of Switzerland, won the Tour of Switzerland on Sunday after winning the ninth and final stage of the race, a 38.5km time-trial. Cancellara beat Germany’s Tony Martin - winner of Saturday’s penultimate stage and second in the final stage - by 2min 2sec in the overall standings while Roman Kreuziger, of the Czech Republic, was third, 2min 24sec adrift.