There was snow on the Great Wall of China when Emma Pooley first rode the circuit on which she secured a silver medal in the Olympic Games yesterday. Last winter, riding the roads that have brought Great Britain their first two cycling medals, Pooley realised that there was plenty to do to if she was to become a contender for the women's time-trial.

After her sterling work for Nicole Cooke, the gold medal-winner, in the road race on Sunday, yesterday's “race against the clock” was Pooley's moment and she seized it with the exuberance and fearlessness that characterises Team GB's cycling team. Had she been nervous before the time-trial or felt the need to spend time with Steve Peters, the team psychiatrist? “No, I just rang my mum,” Pooley said.

“Project Pooley” was developed after it became clear that the waif-like cyclist needed to ally time-trialling skills to her climbing ability. Going uphill fast was one thing, coming down fast, weighing 7st 12lb (50kg), another. The 25-year-old needed more power and aerodynamic efficiency.

Key to the Olympic medal success of “Project Pooley” was input from Chris Boardman, the time-trialling expert. “It was a really long-shot medal and when we came here in the winter we sat down to establish what were her biggest issues,” he said. “She's so small that we had to make some equipment for her. We worked hard on her position and did a lot of downhill work, too.”

Expert View

Why didn't they ring me up before they decided to hold the Olympic Games in Beijing in August? Don't do it, I'd have said

Simon Barnes

• More

• Post a comment

Olympics updates direct to your mobile

Put the Beijing Games in your pocket

Phelps claims his place in history

The peerless American won his fifth gold medal of the Games and eleventh overall, making him the most successful Olympian

• The joy of Michael Phelps' epic demented journey

• Profile: Psychology and physiology make Michael Phelps a phenomenon

BACKGROUND

• Wiggins ‘not critical’ for pursuit success

• Tailored course did not suit eventing squads

• Pooley defies gravity to seize silver medal

• Why sex and softball is too much for China

Multimedia

• Simon Barnes in Beijing

• Bring back the tug-of-war

• Top 100 Olympic athletes of all time

Related Links

• Brailsford’s goals move up another level

• Analysis: Jeremy Whittle

• Brutal conditions leave cyclists spluttering

Pooley also realised that, unlike some time-triallists, she would perform better with handlebars designed to marry road and time-trialling styles, so a special handlebar was developed, allowing her to leverage more power from her flyweight frame as she sped towards the top of the Badaling Pass.

In the end, though, gravity put paid to the best-laid plans. Four seconds down on Pooley at the top of the climb to Badaling, Kristin Armstrong, the 9st United States rider, made up half a minute on the way down, relegating the Briton to the silver-medal position. “When I saw Armstrong was only four seconds down with the descent to come, I reckoned Emma would struggle to win,” Boardman said.

Pooley, who was “miffed” to have been the fifth rider to start out of 25, had to sit and watch as rider after rider came through the finish line. However, silver in her first Olympics was hardly a disappointment. “It feels fantastic,” the Cambridge graduate said.

Cooke, who crossed the line in a state of near-collapse, finished fifteenth and said that she had found it hard to lift her form after her road-race victory. “I'd given absolutely everything on Sunday,” she said. “It was an absolutely heroic day, so it probably did take something out of me.” Nonetheless, Cooke said that she planned to share a bottle of British Olympic Association champagne, which has been cooling in her fridge since Sunday evening, with Pooley. “A bottle on my own would do a lot of damage,” Cooke said.

In the men's time-trial, Steve Cummings, of Britain, had set the fastest time at one point, only to be relegated to eleventh. Fabian Cancellara, the winner of the prologue start of the 2007 Tour de France in London, took the gold medal.