Baden Cooke looking good at the Tour de Suisse 2012
Baden Cooke of Team Orica GreenEdge is desperate to open his 2012 winning account and the cyclist is trying his luck at the Tour De Suisse 2012.
He was superb during the 194.7 kilometre stage 3 of the Swiss race and came close of tasting his first victory of the season.
Peter Sagan of Team Liquigas-Cannondale managed to claim the top podium spot after his remarkable performance that earned him a stage victory in a competitive time of 4 hour, 35 minutes and 32 seconds.
Baden Cooke of Team Orica GreenEdge and Ben Swift of Team Sky Procycling finished almost at the same time but had to settle for the second and the third positions respectively.
Jacopo Guarnieri of Team Astana finished three seconds behind at the fourth spot with Allan Davis of Team GreenEdge holding the fifth spot.
"Today I was focused on getting Allan to the line,” Cooke noted.
“It wasn't my job to do the sprint today but because of the corners and the skinny roads, doing the lead out lent itself to be on the front”.
“I realized in the last kilometre that Allan had lost my wheel. I was in a good position, so I went for it. I nearly held it to the line”.
"The day was tough from the start of the chase; we spent a lot of energy pulling back the break,” he concluded.
Cooke started his professional pursuit with Team Mercury in 2000 and stayed with the side for a period of two years.
He also represented Team Francaise des Jeux (2002-05), Team Unibet.com (2006-07), Team Barloworld (2008), Team Vacansoleil (2009) and stayed with Team Saxo Bank for 2010-11 seasons.
Baden accepted an offer from Team Orica GreenEdge in 2012 and the cyclist looks promising during his debut season with the home crowd.
Top ten cyclists after the stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse are as under,
1
Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale
4:35:32
2
Baden Cooke (Aus) Orica GreenEdge Cycling Team
3
Ben Swift (GBr) Sky Procycling
4
Jacopo Guarnieri (Ita) Pro Team Astana
0:00:03
5
Allan Davis (Aus) Orica GreenEdge Cycling Team
6
Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ-Big Mat
7
Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
8
Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Barracuda
9
Daniele Colli (Ita) Team Type 1 - Sanofi
10
Marcus Burghardt (Ger) BMC Racing Team
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