Nicole Cooke

Her achievements in 2008 were recognised when she won an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list as well as recognition as ‘Female Athlete of the Year’ and ‘Sportswoman of the Year’ by Transworld Sport and the Sunday Times respectively.

As a junior, she achieved remarkable success, winning an unprecedented four  World Titles in the space of 12 months across a range of disciplines from Road Race to Time Trials and Mountain Biking. 2002 was her first season as a full time professional, riding amongst the world’s elite senior women. Cooke achieved an outstanding seven wins during the season. The highlight of the year was undoubtedly her gold in the Commonwealth Games Road Race in Manchester.

Cycling has always played a big part in Cooke’s life. From a young age, Cooke and her family would go on cycling holidays on their 2 tandems and tour the countryside of Devon, Norfolk and the Isle of Wight. This soon led to the interest in racing and at the age of 11 Cooke entered her first race.

This was a Cyclo-Cross, the winter version of Mountain biking, and within a few months Cooke won her first race the Welsh Cyclo-Cross Championships beating all the boys.

Her first senior breakthrough came in 1999. After spending a month based in Holland in the summer after finishing her GCSEs, Cooke sent shockwaves through the British cycling establishment by winning the gruelling three hour 120km British Elite Road Race Championship, at the age of 16 making her the youngest ever British Senior Champion, male or female.

The following season, was the year of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games but under the rules of the International Federation, Cooke was too young to compete. In August of that year, Cooke competed in the GP du Quebec in Canada, which many riders were using as final preparation for the Olympics. Here, while still a first year junior, 17-year-old Cooke achieved two podium places, notably second place on the toughest Mountain stage that took the riders over two climbs higher than Snowdon.

Cooke had also excelled as a student. Apart from cycling eight miles to school every day with her brother and dad, she passed her first GCSE, Maths when she was just 12. She achieved an outstanding set of academic results and achieved an A grade in her Maths A-level a year early. Once Cooke had finished all her exams that summer she spent a month in Italy riding for the World’s No One cycling team.

She returned home for her A-level results, and added two more ‘A’ grades to give her three A-levels in Maths, Geography and Biology.

In 2000 Cooke received recognition for her achievements including the International New Comer Award presented by the Sports Writers Association at their annual Dinner in London. This was also followed up by the BBC Wales Junior Sports Person of the Year award.

At the beginning of 2002, Cooke signed for a professional team “DEIA-Pragma-Colnago” and moved to Italy where she would be based for the year. This allowed Cooke to be based at the heart of women’s cycling and race at the highest level. In only her second professional race, she scored a fantastic win beating the current Senior World Champion by leaving her rivals on the climbs, and then out-sprinting a small breakaway group at the finish. Her first season continued in the same fashion, including as it did the Commonwealth Title.

In 2003 Cooke really came of age. She won the season long World Cup competition winning three of the eight rounds and placing high in the others. She narrowly missed out on the World Championship title in a close race in Hamilton Canada, being beaten in the final sprint and taking the Bronze medal.

At her first Olympic Games,  Athens 2004 Olympic Games, Cooke came a very creditable fifth in the Women's Road Race and 19th in the Women's Road Time Trial.

To read more please visit: http://www.nicolecooke.com/

Last Updated August 2009