Cycling Profile: Nicole Cooke
Nicole Denise Cooke is a Welsh professional road bicycle racer and Olympic road race Champion that currently rides for Mario Cipollini-Giordana team. The 28-year-old cyclist was born in Swansea and she took a part in cycling at 11 and joined Cardiff Ajax
Cycling Club.
She showed her good abilities and took her first senior national title at the British National Road Race Championships. Cooke secured UCI World Championships Junior title four times in her career.
Cooke achieved the Bidlake Memorial Prize because of her outstanding performance. In 1999 she secured his first victory in GBR British National Road Race Championships and became a professional career at the start of 2002 for Spanish-Italian Deia-Pragma-Colnago
team. She later joined the Lithuanian-Italian team. Nicole took numerous one day races in Italy and won the junior title in UCI Road World Championships as she managed to grab runner-up spot in British National Cyclocross Championships.
She rode well and was able to take the third spot in UCI Mountain Bike World Championships and fifth place in the Grand Prix de Quebec. Nicole was the first Briton and youngest cyclists to win the UCI World Women’s Road Cup Champion. In Tour du Grand Montreal
she crashed as she hit a motorbike and required stitches in her left knee. After her recovery she took part in Giro de Trentino and again crashed. Due to this, she did not take part in any race for the rest of the season.
After her recovery she won her fifth British title and also the Giro d’ltalia Femminile Grand Tour. In 2004, Nicole grabbed fifth place in Summer Olympics Road Race and the 19th spot in the time trial race. In the 2005 season, Cooke put in a good
effort as she held her La Fleche Wallonne Feminine lead and also secured runner-up spot in UCI World Road Race Championships. While in December, she worked hard for the 2006 Commonwealth Games but she broke her collar-bone in the UCI Track World Cup.
However, Nicole did not lose hope and continued her effort when in March she took the bronze medal in the road race. After her proper recovery, she achieved the biggest win of her career when she grabbed first place at the UCI’s Women’s World Road Race Rankings.
After winning the three cup series she won the UCI Women’s World Cup for the second time in her successful career.
In 2007, Cooke took first place in four races including, Grande Boucle Feminine, Tour Geelong, Tour Alfredo Binda and GP Costa Etrusca. Due to this tremendous effort she again took first spot in the UCI World Ranking and also won the GBR British National
Road Race Title. Nicole is a brilliant cyclist that has put in many amazing performances throughout her tremendous career. She has also managed the overall runner-up spot in the UCI Women’s Road World Cup.
In the 2008 season, she joined Halfords Bikehut team and her first victory was first place in Tour de l’Aude and overall fourth place in the race. She took the gold medal in the Olympic Games road race and also secured first place in the UCI Road World Championships
and GBR British National Road Race Championships.
In 2009, Nicole took the two stages and overall fourth place in Lurreta-Emakumeen Bira and secured first place in Giro del Trentino Alto Adige. Cooke successfully won first spot in GBR British National Road Race Championships ahead of Lizzie Armistead. In
November 2010 it was announced that she would join Mario Cipollini-Giordana team in 2011 and she took the silver medal in the British National Road Championships behind Lizzie Armistead. If Nicole continues her brilliant efforts, there is the possibility that
she can possibly win the UCI World Ranking next year.
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