Nicole Denise Cooke, MBE (born 13 April 1983) is a Welsh former professional road bicycle racer and the 2008 Olympic road race champion. Cooke announced her retirement from the sport on 14 January 2013 at the age of 29.[1][2]
Early life
Cooke was born in Swansea,[3] and grew up in Wick, Vale of Glamorgan. She attended Brynteg Comprehensive School in Bridgend,[4] in the year below Gavin Henson. She began cycling at 11,[5] starting at Cardiff Ajax Cycling Club[6] of which she is a life member. At 16 she won her first senior national title, becoming the youngest rider to take the senior women's title at the British National Road Race Championships. At 18 she became the youngest rider to win the senior women's title at the British National Cyclocross Championships.[7] She won four UCI World Championship Junior titles, the road race in 2000 (Plouay, France), and the unique treble of mountain bike (Colorado, USA), time trial and road race (both Lisbon, Portugal) in 2001.[8] As a result of this achievement she was awarded the 2001 Bidlake Memorial Prize for outstanding performance or contribution to British cycling.[9]
International cycling career 2002–2007
Cooke turned professional for the Spanish-Italian Deia-Pragma-Colnago team at the start of the 2002 season,[10] basing herself in Treviso where she learned to speak Italian.[11] On her retirement, Cooke noted that in her first Tour de France aged 19, as the race went on her strength left her, that she was invited to a meeting in the team campervan with the team principle to discuss what "medicines" that she would like to take to help her.[1] Refusing to take perfomance enhancing drugs,[1] After the race ended and with her contract terminated, she joined the Lithuanian-Italian team Acca-Due-O.[12]
A UCI regulation limiting team sizes meant the squad was split in two ahead of the 2003 season, with Cooke riding for the newly-formed Ausra Gruodis-Safi with many of the younger riders.[13] The next season Nicole moved to the now renamed senior squad Safi-Pasta Zara Manhattan, who she rode for in 2004 and 2005. At the end of 2005 she joined Swiss-based team Univega Pro-Cycling[14] for two seasons, moving to Lugano in 2006[15] where she still lives.[16]
In her first professional season in 2002 Cooke won a number of prestigious one day races in Italy and Holland,[17][18] and also won the road race in the 2002 Commonwealth Games.[19] She was voted runner-up in the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year. The season was also marked by the Deia-Pragma-Colnago team suffering financial problems, resulting in their failure to pay wages to Cooke and some of her colleagues. The troubles culminated when the team seized Cooke's racing bicycle ahead of the World Road Cycling Championships in October.[20]
In 2003 Cooke won a number of important races including the La Flèche Wallonne Féminine, the Amstel Gold, the GP de Plouay and the GP San Francisco. She was the 2003 UCI Women's Road World Cup champion, the youngest to win the competition and the first Briton. She placed third in the UCI World Road Race Championships. Cooke was voted BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year. A crash in June at the Tour du Grand Montréal where she hit a stationary police motorbike,[21] required stitches in her left knee.[22] Three weeks later she crashed again at the Giro de Trentino[23] and suffered pain in her knee for the rest of the season.
Cooke endured a delayed start to the 2004 season. After a winter and spring of rehabilitation failed to cure the ongoing knee problem, Cooke underwent keyhole surgery in May.[24] At the end of June in her competitive first race in 8 months, Cooke won her fifth British title.[25] The following month Cooke won the Giro d'Italia Femminile, becoming the youngest ever winner and the first British cyclist, male or female, to win a Grand Tour.[26] At the 2004 Summer Olympics she placed fifth in the women's road race and 19th in the road time trial.
2006 saw Cooke clear of injury and have her most successful season as a professional culminating on 1 August 2006 with her taking over as number 1 on the UCI's women's world road race rankings.[29] On 3 September 2006 she secured the UCI Women's Road World Cup for a second time after winning three world cup races in the season - La Flèche Wallonne Féminine, the Ladies Golden Hour[30] and the Castilla y Leon World Cup Race.[31] She also won the 2006 Grande Boucle, the women's Tour de France, by over 6 minutes.[32] Other important wins included four stages and the overall title at Thüringen-Rundfahrt stage race[33] and the Magali Pache Time Trial.[34] She came third in the UCI World Road Race Championships.
A knee injury sustained prior to the last race of the 2007 World Cup, the Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt, prevented Cooke from fully defending her title with close challenger Marianne Vos winning the final race and taking the title.[38] Cooke had led the series since the first race. The injury forced her to miss the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart.[39] Cooke later admitted in an interview in 2008 that she had considered quitting the sport due to the injury.[40]
2008: Olympic and World success
Cooke joined Team Halfords Bikehut for 2008. Her first victory of 2008 was the Tour de l'Aude, taking the first stage and finishing fourth overall.[41] On 28 June, Cooke won her ninth national road race champion title, and her eighth consecutive win.
She became the first woman to become the road race World Champion and Olympic gold medalist in the same year.[43] An eventful race in Varese, Italy lasted 3 hours 42 minutes and 11 seconds, culminating in a sprint. She credited her team mates for their work, pulling back the 12-rider break with a few kilometres to go, putting Cooke back in contention.[44]
Cooke's book, Cycle for life was published in October 2008 by Kyle Cathie (ISBN 9781856267564). The book combines her passion and enthusiasm for cycling, together with her knowledge, proficiency and experience. It is aimed at cyclists at all levels, with expert advice on everything from getting started to turning competitive, covering commuting, racing and riding with friends.[45]
Cooke was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours.[46] She was awarded the Transworld Sport "Female Athlete of the Year" title in recognition of her achievements in 2008.[47] She was also awarded the Sunday Times Sportswoman Of The Year award.[48]
In June 2009 Cooke captured the Giro del Trentino title and won her national championship for the tenth time.[49]
After Cooke's Vision1 Cycling Team collapsed in 2009, Cycling Weekly described 2010 as a lean year. Attached to no team, Cooke raced and trained with the British cycling team colours. Cooke won a single stage at the Iurreta-Emakumeen Bira along with a 5th Place in the Commonwealth Games Women's Road Race and a 4th Place in the World Championships Road Race.
In November 2010 Cooke joined the Italian based Mcipollini-Giordana team for 2011.
Wales
Great Britain
