Emma Pooley: Haute Route from Geneva to Nice perfect training for the Worlds and is a dream come true for me

Following a ridiculously early alarm call 600 cyclists gathered behind the shoreside starting line in Geneva, Switzerland, with 780 kilometres of road between them and the finishing line on the Côte d'Azur.

The numbers were staggeringly scary: 780km including 21,000 metres of ascending over 19 mythical Alpine cols in seven successive days. All against the clock. The Haute Route, in its second year of running, has not called itself 'the toughest and highest sportive in the world' for nothing.

With riders travelling to Switzerland from all over the world - including a team from Kenya who are hoping to one day turn professional - it was hardly surprising that most had clearly put in a fair few hours of training in the preceeding months in preparation for the adventure.

What was surprising, though, was to see a rider last seen powering her way up Boxhill during the women's Olympic road race amongst the ranks of 'weekend warriors' and wannabe road racers.

Following a few days in the saddle Telegraph Sport, finally, caught up with Pooley - once the diminutive 29 year-old had been presented her leader's yellow jersey once again. Pooley, unsurpisingly, wore yellow all the way to the finishing line in Nice having won the women's classification while Peter Pouly of France claimed the men's.

"I heard about the Haute Route and it sounded like . . . fun," Pooley convinces Telegraph Sport. "It's the kind of thing I love doing, especially in mountains like this. This is my dream come true quite frankly, I'd do this for a holiday - it's been brilliant. I've really enjoyed it - but it counts for good training too.

"It is good training for the Worlds. It's got to be, it's a week long stage race where I'm on my limit everyday. Maybe there's not the speedwork involved, but I've got time to do that afterwards. Also, after [the] London [Olympics] I had a bit of a break so it's nice to come back and do something I enjoy with such lovely scenery and weather."

While for the majority of the riders simply completing the Haute Route represented a huge personal achievement a number of strong riders, including Pouly and the team from Kenya, refused to take it easy as temperatures soared to upto 38 degrees.

"Some of the guys are really fast and I've been hanging on to the front group, but it's great training," Pooley added.

"Peter Pouly – no relation – has been super-strong. He's just been playing with us really. He could go off [the front] any time he likes and ride to the finish alone 20 minutes ahead of the rest of us. So, for me, it has been great training because I've really being pushed on by the guys on the climbs and I've been riding on my limit quite a lot of the time which is great.

"Am I being tested here? Oh yes. I would have won a stage if I could, but I couldn't. I was pretty happy finishing fourth in the first few days, but then disappointed with my [mountain] time-trial [up Alpe d'Huez] because I had hoped to do better but all the guys who beat me were strong climbers. It has been really friendly and because it's not a proper race it doesn't really matter.

"There's a huge range of people here from people for who just finishing is a massive achievement and they might even be outside the time limit. To complete a stage like the one with the Col de la Madeleine, Col du Glandon and then up Alpe d'Huez which is such a massive day – some of the riders are out there for up to nine hours which is actually harder than it is for me because they're out there for a long time suffering in the heat.

"It's lovely to meet these people and to be reminded just how fun cycling is. They're really friendly too and lots of them have been saying 'oh we watched you in the Olympics' and so on, it's been great."

Pooley, too, was buoyed by the numbers of women participating in the Haute Route. "Road racing can be quite intimidating," she said. "Whereas sportives are less so because you can just aim to beat your time from last year, or place high in your age group or, quite frankly, just aim to finish it. Doing something like the Haute Route is really hard so it's an incredible achievement just to finish it.

"I think that sportives are, maybe, more attractive to some women because it's not that head-to-head testosterone-fuelled competition of a road race.

"To be honest I don't think that people who ride bikes should necessarily race. I'm just really happy to see someone riding a bike and enjoying themselves. I've met so many women here on the Haute Route – lots of Brits actually – who are just really enjoying the challenge and it's really impressive what they are doing. I mean, they don't train full-time like me, they have to do real jobs or bring up kids and things. But it's really nice to be around and see."

• In part two: Pooley says UCI have "turned women's cycling into a Mickey Mouse sport".