Nicole Cooke - UCI#1

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/cycling/...842912,00.html

Nicole Cooke, Britain's real sports personality

Richard Williams
Saturday August 12, 2006
The Guardian


The first time Nicole Cooke glimpsed the summit of Mont Ventoux, a legendary
moonscape shimmering with menace 7,000ft above the plains of the Lubéron,
she was more than two minutes ahead of the field and trying hard to keep her
rhythm after an hour of climbing in 40 degrees of heat.
"I went around a corner and saw five or six hundred metres of scree and
three or four hairpins going at crazy angles," she said this week, looking
back to the June afternoon when she consolidated the lead that eventually
gave her victory in the Grande Boucle Féminine, as the women's version of
the Tour de France is now known. "I'd never been up there before, even in a
car. I'd studied the route, but just to see how barren it was . . ." Her
eyes widen at the memory of one of cycling's great challenges.

This was the first time the mountain had been included in the women's Tour.
But not even the Giant of Provence, whose place in the history of British
cycling was assured when Tom Simpson died on its slopes in the 1967 men's
Tour, could intimidate Cooke. "As soon as we saw the race profile," she
said, "there was a sense of excitement about being given the opportunity to
race there. We knew it would be a day to remember."
In fact it turned out to be a day of days in what has been the year of years
for a rider who this week became the first British cyclist of either sex to
be named No1 in the world rankings issued by the UCI, the international
cycling union. Mont Ventoux provided a highlight of a year nearing its
climax as Cooke goes into the final three races of the season-long World Cup
with a 74-point lead that will be hard for her rivals to overcome, followed
by the world championships in Salzburg in the last week of September.

Victory in the women's Tour was a significant addition to Cooke's list of
honours, which already includes wins in 2003 in the World Cup and the
women's Giro d'Italia and a gold medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The
scale of her success against riders from nations with a far greater depth of
resources and support ought to have put her among the favourites for the
BBC's sports personality of the year award.

After the lung-searing climb up Ventoux it was the descent the other side
that gave Cooke particular pleasure. Hurtling through the turns with the
screeching tyres of her support vehicle in her ears, she took a further two
minutes out of the field by the time they reached the finish line. "It was
what makes days like this worthwhile," she said.

The "day like this" was a cold, dark and rainswept one this week in
Switzerland's Engadine mountains, where an eight-hour training run involving
180km of climbing and descending, including the famous Stelvio pass just
over the Italian border, had left her so drained that she slumped to the
floor outside the door of her hotel room in St Moritz with barely enough
energy to pull off her cycling shoes. "I couldn't imagine how I was going to
summon up the strength to open the door," she said over dinner a few hours
later, once the colour had returned to her cheeks.

Equally it was the sort of a day with which she has become increasingly
familiar since she started racing at the age of 11 in the Vale of Glamorgan,
encouraged by her father, a physics teacher who had competed in his own
youth. "My dad had a lot of experience from when he raced," she said. "He
knew what mistakes he'd made and he didn't want me to make the same ones. He
was never a good sprinter, for instance. He said, 'I lost so many races
because of that and you're not going to make the same mistake.'

"He was also very good at thinking about more than just the here-and-now. In
Wales at the time there were hardly any riders in the under-15 age group. So
when I was 12 I went to Holland and did a stage race with 50 or 60 other
Dutch, Belgian and German kids of my age. It was perfect. We were being
treated as proper racing cyclists. There were jerseys, flowers and
commentators and they really made it a very good atmosphere. I came home and
said, 'OK, this is what I think I really want to do.'"

Very soon her schooling was being rearranged to take account of her training
schedule. "I did some O levels and A levels a year early and that gave me
extra time to train. The junior world championships coincided with my last
year of A levels but because I'd spaced out my education that wasn't going
to suffer. I was able to get everything I wanted out of my studies and that
worked really well." She passed maths, physics and biology with A grades.

The next stage, aged 18, was a three-week trial with a professional team in
Italy. And it was there that she encountered the kind of behaviour which has
put men's cycling under such a cloud this summer. "I went out training with
the girl I was staying with," she said, "and the team manager came along to
get an idea of how we were going. We met up again later that afternoon and
he came around with a white jar with some liquid in it. I said, 'What the
hell is that?' He said, 'Don't worry, they're not for you. They're for the
other girl. She's not very strong and she needs some amino-acids to build
her up.' The girl was quite happy to inject them into herself.

"I just could not believe it. The whole mentality was something I hated. A
body isn't made for having big infusions of acids or sugars or
anti-oxidants. If you eat healthily and you take vitamins and minerals, if
you're taking care of yourself, why should you ever get to the stage where
you have to give yourself a massive boost? I made it very clear that I
thought what she was doing was totally flawed. That's always been my stance
on those performance-enhancing methods - even though they're not drugs. And
when it comes to drugs, I want to win races and know I've won them because I
was the strongest and because of my hard work. If I was faced with a serious
question about whether to take drugs, I would leave the sport. I can enjoy
cycling and going for rides without a number on my back. I don't have to be
in a race to enjoy that."

had she ever been beaten in a big race by a woman she suspected of doping?
"I know there are a few riders with question marks over them," she replied,
and spoke of losing a World Cup race in Montreal to a Canadian rider who was
subsequently accused of taking EPO. "But women's cycling doesn't have the
same history as men's cycling. We didn't have riders taking drugs to ride
the Tour de France in the 1920s or six-day riders using amphetamines just to
stay awake in the 1960s. There really was no women's racing scene until it
picked up in the 1990s. And we don't have that merry-go-round of yesterday's
riders being today's team directors."

Nevertheless her successful multinational Univega-Raleigh women's team is
feeling the effect of the bad publicity drawn by Operacion Puerto and the
disgrace of Floyd Landis. "We're trying to sort out sponsorship for the next
two years with people who are doubting whether it's even worth putting money
into cycling. So my team manager is having to fight quite hard and say that
women's cycling isn't in the same state as men's cycling, it's actually very
clean and a good platform."

She has been tested "about 15 times" this season, in and out of competition,
and believes that a positive test should lead to a life ban from major
competitions. "When a person makes a decision about taking drugs, the
downside has to be so bad that she can't even think it's worth it. But if
the consequence is a six-month ban and then a return to racing, what's that
to be scared about?"

Thanks to the contract with her team and a handful of endorsements for
equipment and energy products, Cooke makes the sort of money that a
domestique in a men's ProTour team might expect. The difference in the prize
money, however, is risible. The winner of a World Cup one-day race or the
Grande Boucle makes ?1,000 (£673). The winner's cheque for the men's Tour,
by contrast, is upwards of half a million.

"The difference is the press and TV coverage," Cooke said on the day before
the announcement of her historic No1 ranking rated no more than a mention on
page 14 of Cycling News. "I've had so many conversations with editors. It's
crazy because women are half of the population and women's racing is fun and
exciting to watch and there are characters and rivalries just like in the
men's events.

"The UCI should be doing a lot more to promote it. Two years ago they formed
a women's commission, and about eight of us put our names forward to be
involved. I spent a lot of time suggesting things but nothing's happened. So
I thought, well, why bother? I'll just concentrate on myself."

At Plouay in France next weekend she resumes her quest for a second World
Cup title, to be followed by an attempt to capture the world champion's
rainbow jersey for the first time. In any year it would a crime that the
towering achievements of this talented, intelligent and tenacious woman
should be obscured by the refusal to take a cyclist as seriously as a tennis
player or a track athlete. And given the current gloom surrounding British
sport, it seems simply perverse not to recognise that, by any measure,
Nicole Cooke is the best we have.

A winning habit Cooke's rise to the top

1994

Wins her first race, the Welsh cyclo-cross championships, the winter version
of mountain biking

1999

At 16 becomes the youngest British senior champion by winning the Elite Road
Race Championship

2002

Wins the women's road race at August's Commonwealth Games

2003

Becomes youngest ever, and first British, UCI World Cup winner. Wins La
Flèche Wallonne races in Belgium

2005

Wins La Flèche and is second in the World Championship in September

2006

Wins La Flèche again and women's Tour de France. Named world No1


--
"usted me enoja, quito los dientes"

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On 12 Aug 2006 08:51:45 -0700, wrote:

Unsubscribe

Cancel your own damn subscription.

Ron

"Xavier Santiago Amarillo - Dentista" wrote in message
...
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/cycling/...842912,00.html

Nicole Cooke, Britain's real sports personality

Richard Williams
Saturday August 12, 2006
The Guardian



In memory of Bruce I have to ask, is she hot?

in message , Frank Drackman
') wrote:

"Xavier Santiago Amarillo - Dentista" wrote in
message ...
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/cycling/...842912,00.html

Nicole Cooke, Britain's real sports personality

In memory of Bruce I have to ask, is she hot?

Sadly, not very. From what I've seen in television interviews she seems
likeable enough, but...

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; this is not a .sig

On Mon, 14 Aug 2006 22:17:14 +0100, Simon Brooke
wrote:

in message , Frank Drackman
') wrote:

"Xavier Santiago Amarillo - Dentista" wrote in
message ...
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/cycling/...842912,00.html

Nicole Cooke, Britain's real sports personality

In memory of Bruce I have to ask, is she hot?

Sadly, not very. From what I've seen in television interviews she seems
likeable enough, but...

I like watching her ride -- very dynamic pedalling and very agressive.
And I saw one interview with her where she seemed that great mix of
very competitive, very proud and yet friendly. Great rider.

JT


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Simon Brooke wrote:

in message , Frank Drackman
') wrote:


"Xavier Santiago Amarillo - Dentista" wrote in
message ...

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/cycling/...842912,00.html

Nicole Cooke, Britain's real sports personality

In memory of Bruce I have to ask, is she hot?


Sadly, not very. From what I've seen in television interviews she seems
likeable enough, but...


she's not bruce's style, but i think she's cute. i wish i could look
this fresh on rollers.
http://nicolecooke.com/main/gallery/2006/rollers.html



h

Xavier Santiago Amarillo - Dentista wrote:

Nicole Cooke, Britain's real sports personality

Equally it was the sort of a day with which she has become increasingly
familiar since she started racing at the age of 11 in the Vale of Glamorgan,

Hmmm. Interesting cycling-related story from that part of Wales:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/w...st/4794753.stm

:-)

MMan wrote:
Xavier Santiago Amarillo - Dentista wrote:
Nicole Cooke, Britain's real sports personality

Equally it was the sort of a day with which she has become increasingly
familiar since she started racing at the age of 11 in the Vale of Glamorgan,

Hmmm. Interesting cycling-related story from that part of Wales:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/w...st/4794753.stm

:-)

Should have read "cystitis dismount"
;-))