Nicole Cooke

Early life and beginnings in cycling

Nicole Denise Cooke was born in Swansea on 13 April 1983.^[2][3] She lived in Wick, Vale of Glamorgan, and attended Brynteg Comprehensive School in Bridgend.^[4] During her childhood, Cooke raced her father and brother daily on their five-mile round-trip ride to her school.^[5] The family went on cycling holidays, where they shared tandem bicycles.^[6] She began cycling seriously at age 11, trained at Cardiff Ajax Cycling Club, and entered both the under-12 Welsh and British Cyclo Cross Championships.^[7][6] Lacking local competitions to enter, Cooke travelled to the Netherlands to race aged 12, and took her O-level's and A-levels a year early to fit around her cycling aspirations.^[8]

At 16, she won her first senior national title at the 1999 British National Road Race Championships, becoming the youngest ever winner of the race.^[9] At 17, she was ineligible to compete for Great Britain at the 2000 Summer Olympics due to her age. British Cycling chose not to make an appeal to the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the sport's governing body, and Cooke said as the national champion that the decision made no sense.^[10] She won the senior women's title at the 2001 British National Cyclocross Championships,^[11] and won her second senior title at the British National Road Race Championships that same year.^[12] She won four UCI World Championship Junior titles, the road race in 2000, and the treble of mountain bike, time trial, and road race in 2001.^[13] Cooke was awarded the 2001 Bidlake Memorial Prize for outstanding performance or contribution to British cycling.^[14] Cooke was offered a place on British Cycling's Olympic Podium Programme, but she rejected the opportunity as it centred around track cycling which she did not wish to participate in.^[15]

International cycling career 2002–2007

Cooke rode professionally with the Italian Deia-Pragma-Colnago team for the 2002 season, while also joining British Cycling's Elite programme which allowed her to attend training camps and races with the British team.^[16] She based herself in Treviso, Italy, where she shared a house with Australian rider Rochelle Gilmore,^[17][18] and learned to speak Italian.^[17] That year, Cooke won the Ronde van Westerbeek,^[19] the Trofeo Citta Di Rosignano,^[20] and the Memorial Pasquale di Carlo.^[21]

At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Cooke missed out on a medal in the time trial after finishing tenth,^[22] with her coach Shane Sutton stating that she was emotionally upset and chronically fatigued after the race. She had trained at a very high intensity in the build-up and was told to rest for six days. Cooke then achieved victory in the road race, winning on the roads of Rivington to earn Wales second-ever cycling gold in the Commonwealth Games, and the first since Louise Jones in 1990.^[23] Due to financial issues, the Deia-Pragma-Colnago team failed to pay wages to Cooke and some of her colleagues. The team seized hrt racing bicycle from a vehicle, and her victory at the subsequent Ronde Van Westerbeek was achieved on a borrowed bike.^[24] Cooke finished runner-up in the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year competition.^[25]

In 2003, Cooke rode for Ausra Gruodis-Safi.^[26] That year, she won La Flèche Wallonne Féminine, the Amstel Gold Race, the GP de Plouay and the GP San Francisco.^[19] She secured the 2003 UCI Women's Road World Cup title—the youngest rider to ever win the competition and the first Briton to do so.^[27] She hit a stationary motorbike in June at the Tour du Grand Montréal, breaking her collarbone,^[28] as well as suffering an injury to her knee.^[29] Three weeks later, she crashed again at the Giro de Trentino.^[30] Cooke came third in the road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Hamilton. After catching France's Jeannie Longo near the end of the race, Cooke was edged out by Sweden's Susanne Ljungskog and Mirjam Melchers of the Netherlands.^[31] At the end of the year, she was voted BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year.^[25]

Cooke undertook a spell of rehabilitation in an attempt to cure a knee problem and ultimately underwent surgery in May 2004.^[32] At the end of June, in her first race in eight months, she won her fifth British road-race title.^[33] The following month, Cooke won the Giro d'Italia Femminile, becoming the youngest winner, and the first British cyclist, male or female, to win a Grand Tour. She took the race lead after winning a climb at Magreglio and successfully defended the pink jersey on the final stage.^[34] At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, she placed fifth in the women's road race; Cooke lost time following a final-lap collision with a barrier and finished just behind bronze-medallist Olga Slyusareva of Russia.^[35] She also came 19th in the road time trial.^[7]

In 2005, she won La Flèche Wallonne Féminine,^[19] the GP Wallonie,^[36] the Trofeo Alfredo Binda,^[37] and the Trofeo Citta di Rosignano.^[38] At the Tour of Flanders, Cooke was one of a group of 20 riders who took a wrong turn on the course. As a result, the points accrued in the race were annulled.^[39] She came second in both the Primavera Rosa,^[40] and the 2005 World Championships. In the latter, she was beaten by half a bike length by Regina Schleicher of Germany.^[41] At the end of 2005, she joined Swiss-based team Univega Pro-Cycling^[42] moving to Lugano, Switzerland, in 2006,^[43] where she still lived as of March 2012.^[44]

In December that year, she broke her collarbone during qualifying for the points race at the UCI Track World Cup event in Manchester.^[45] After recovering, Cooke won bronze in the road race at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Racing as the sole Welsh entrant, she finished behind Australians Natalie Bates and Oenone Wood.^[46] In her autobiography, she addressed the decision by the Welsh Cycling Union (WCU) to enter her with no teammates, writing that: "the WCU had gifted Australia, Canada, England and New Zealand my head on a plate".^[47] The WCU said that steps had been taken to ensure that multiple Welsh riders would be eligible to compete at the next Commonwealth Games.^[48]

On 1 August 2006, Cooke reached number one on the UCI's women's world road race rankings. No other British rider had ever reached the top-20 prior to her.^[49] She secured the overall World Cup title for a second time,^[50] after winning three World Cup races in the season – La Flèche Wallonne Féminine,^[19] the Ladies Golden Hour,^[51] and the Castilla y Leon.^[52] Cooke won the 2006 Grande Boucle stage race by over six minutes. She placed first in the prologue time trial, before extending her lead by over four minutes with victory in a mountain stage featuring a climb of Mont Ventoux. A fifth place on stage five secured her overall win.^[53] Cooke won four stages and the overall title at the Thüringen-Rundfahrt stage race,^[54] and claimed victory at the Magali Pache time trial.^[55] She came third in the road race at the 2006 World Championships in Salzburg, losing out to Marianne Vos and Trixi Worrack in a sprint finish.^[56]

In 2007, Cooke won the Geelong Tour, before achieving victories at the Geelong World Cup,^[57] and the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders for Women), both part of the 2007 UCI Women's Road World Cup.^[58] These wins helped Cooke set a new record in the UCI's women's world road race rankings for the biggest gap in points between the first and second-placed cyclists.^[59] She won the Trofeo Alfredo Binda,^[60] stage two of the GP Costa Etrusca,^[61] and successfully defended her Grande Boucle title. In the latter, she took the race lead on stage three, and won the overall title ahead of Switzerland's Priska Doppmann after finishing second on the final stage in the Pyrenees.^[62]

A knee injury sustained prior to the final race of the 2007 World Cup, the Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt, hindered Cooke in the defence of her title, with Dutch rider Vos winning the final race and Cooke finishing 34th. Cooke ended second to Vos in the overall World Cup standings.^[63] The injury forced her to miss the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart.^[64] Cooke later said in an interview in 2008 that she had considered quitting cycling due to the injury. Her wellbeing had suffered, and she began "hating" the sport. Cooke was helped by her bike mechanic who recommended seeing Dr Fabio Bartolucci; he later started coaching her.^[10]

2008: Olympic and World success

Cooke joined Team Halfords Bikehut for 2008. The team was formed by Dave Brailsford with the aim of developing British cyclists with medal-winning potential. Cooke was at the forefront of those ambitions with the forthcoming Olympics a major target.^[65] She finished 20th at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda, 16th at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, 12th at the Magali Pache time trial, and eighth at La Flèche Wallonne. She also placed third at the Grande Boucle. Cooke stated that she was happy with her form ahead of the upcoming Olympic Games, saying she was intentionally riding a light schedule with the aim of peaking in the summer.^[66] Her first victory of the year came at the Tour de l'Aude, in which she rode with the Great Britain national team. She secured the first stage,^[67] and finished fourth overall.^[68] In June, Cooke won the National Road Race Championship for an eighth consecutive time.^[5]

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Cooke won gold in the women's road race—the 200th gold for Great Britain at an Olympic Games. She formed part of a five-women breakaway, and beat Emma Johansson and Tatiana Guderzo in a sprint at the end of the race. Her gold was the first by a Welsh Olympian since equestrian Richard Meade in 1972,^[7][69] the first individual gold medal for a female Welsh Olympian, and the first Olympic gold medal in any cycling discipline by a British female cyclist.^[5] Cooke then finished 15th in the time-trial, over two minutes behind the gold medallist.^[70]

At the 2008 World Championships, Cooke became the first cyclist, male or female, of any nation, to become the road race world champion and Olympic gold medallist in the same year.^[10] The race in Italy culminated in a sprint where she overcame Vos and Judith Arndt in a sprint finish. The three medallists were part of a five-rider breakaway that attacked on the final lap.^[71] Cooke was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours.^[72] She was awarded the Transworld Sport Female Athlete of the Year,^[73] the Pat Besford award for 'Performance of the Year' by the Sports Journalists' Association,^[74] and the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year for her achievements in 2008.^[75] Cooke was also a nominee for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award.^[76] In October that year, Cooke's book, Cycle for life was published. It offered advice to anyone taking up the sport.^[77]

Later career: 2009–2012

Following Halfords' decision to end their sponsorship for the women's team, Cooke formed her own team, Vision1 Racing, with the ambition of developing young British riders.^[78] In 2009, Cooke captured the Giro del Trentino title,^[19] and won her tenth British National Road Race Championships title.^[79] In July, she withdrew from the Thüringen-Rundfahrt with illness.^[80] She blamed her ill health on the stress of running her own team, and said she was considering the team's future. She had struggled to find sponsorship, and was self-funding the project. The team's manager Stefan Wyman had departed, and Cooke stated: "It is not possible to manage a team and be a cyclist at the same time".^[81] Vision1 Racing finished seventh in the 2009 UCI Team Rankings, but Cooke disbanded the team.^[82][83]

Cooke signed for Equipe Nurnberg Versicherung for 2010,^[84] but due to the loss of key sponsorship, she chose to race and train with the British national team instead for the upcoming season.^[85] She won stage three at the Iurreta-Emakumeen Bira.^[19] At the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Cooke placed fifth in the women's road race,^[19] and at the 2010 UCI Road World Championships in Geelong, she finished fourth in the same event. In the latter, Cooke and Arndt held a 13-second advantage with 3 km remaining, but the pair were caught inside the final 200 m and Cooke missed out on a medal in the ensuing sprint.^[86] At the British National Road Race Championships, she was beaten into third place by Emma Pooley and Lizzie Armitstead. Cooke called the race "unfair", saying that Pooley, Armitstead, and Sharon Laws had teamed up against her. She had won the previous nine editions of the race.^[87]

In November 2010, Cooke joined the Mcipollini-Giordana team for 2011.^[88] That year, she won stage five of the Giro D'Italia,^[19] finished runner-up to Armitstead at the British National Road Race Championships,^[89] and took fourth place in the road race at the 2011 World Championships in Copenhagen. She had started the World Championships expecting to support Armitstead, but after the latter was caught behind a late crash, Cooke rode for herself and was beaten in a bunch sprint.^[90] Armitstead was upset with Cooke afterwards, saying that Cooke was not a team player.^[15]

Riding for the Faren-Honda team in 2012, Cooke won stage five of the Energiewacht Tour in the Netherlands, ending the race in 59th position overall.^[91] At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, she competed in the road race, finishing 31st. During the race, she was dropped by the front-three riders and ended in the chasing pack. Her role was also to support team-leader Armitstead who finished in silver.^[92] In the road race at the 2012 World Championships in Limburg, Cooke finished 60th, over five minutes behind the winner.^[93]

Cooke announced her retirement from the sport on 14 January 2013 at the age of 29. She said that her dreams had been fulfilled.^[94][95][96] In 2014, she was inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame.^[97]

Post retirement: Views on doping and sexism in cycling

In March 2014, Cooke was reported to be studying for an MBA at Cardiff University.^[98] Her autobiography, The Breakaway, was published in the summer of 2014. The Guardian's Richard Williams described it as "a compelling and salutary account of the price she paid for the victories from which many others will benefit".^[99] It was named The Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year 2014, and long listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize.^[100]

Since retirement, Cooke has spoken out campaigning for gender equality in sport and stronger investigatory powers for the anti-doping bodies.^[101] In January 2017, Cooke gave written^[102] and oral^[103] evidence to the Parliamentary Select Committee for the Culture, Media and Sport inquiry into Combatting Doping in Sport and stated that her information about doping in cycling, given as evidence to UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) was subsequently not investigated by UKAD. She also spoke out about the endemic sexism she encountered in sport.^[104] The Independent stated: "Nicole Cooke has issued a damning attack on British Cycling and Team Sky, condemning the governing bodies for their lack of accountability, sexism, and failure to fight the abuse of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) within the sport".^[105][106]

Cooke believes that she was cheated out of race victories by dopers during her career,^[94] called Lance Armstrong a "criminal", and said he should have gone to prison.^[96] Cooke said she felt understrength during her first Tour de France, and has stated that her team asked her which "medicines" she wanted to take in order to make her stronger. She says she was told that she was not matching the teams' expectations in the race, but she refused to take any.^[94]In 2013, she described the decision to cancel the women's Tour de France as a waste of potential for the sport.^[96] Cooke has stated that prior to the 2012 Summer Olympics, a partnership between Mclaren and British Cycling to produce cutting-edge bike technology resulted in the development of bikes for the men's team only.^[106] In 2017, she called on the BBC to give equal coverage to men's and women's sport.^[98]

Cooke appeared in the 2017 series of Christmas University Challenge representing Cardiff University.^[107]

Cyclo-cross

Mountain bike

Road

Source:^[19][111]