James Norton - Best Sport Contributor - Vision

24 SPORT The wheels are in motion for Britain's cycling revolution, and the leader of the pack is...

NICOLE

YORK VISION

Tuesday January 27, 2009

COOKE

JIM NORTON discusses the long hard road from young hopeful to Olympic gold medalist and world champion cyclist. acter. When seven years old, Cooke fell off her bicycle, fracturing her skull. Despite limited vision, she showed extraordinary resilience and determination in riding home. She believes this impressive capacity for coping with pain is due to her “winning logic. I think ‘what do I have to do?’” rather than “can I do it?”. Growing up in Wales also gave Nicole the freedom to roam across the valleys. Her father, a competitive cyclist turned physics teacher, “would race [Nicole] back home, across the hills, instead of

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THE BRITISH CYCLING Federation rode out of obscurity this summer at the Beijing Olympics by racing up the medal tables and boosting Great Britain into the lofty heights of an overall fourth placed finish. Names such as Chris Hoy and Bradley Wiggins were spoken of reverently, yet outside the velodrome, in the smog and the rain, a very special young lady ecstatically received her deserved gold medal with a beaming smile that lifted the spirits of a recession-hit nation. A winning smile that was the culmination of 14 years of hard work. A cheeky grin that belonged to Nicole Cooke.

“At the Olympics, it was incredible to share the dining tables or queue for the laundry with heroes of different sports"

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V Almost there: Nicole Cooke about to win gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

getting the bus”. This training allowed her to join the Cardiff Ajax Cycling Club at 11, a decision desperately needed to satisfy a burgeoning love for competitive cycling. Despite her teenage training regime taking her to races in Holland, which she describes as feeling “like being a Tour de France rider, wonderful”, Nicole was never lax about keeping up with schoolwork. As a prodigious student at school, she completed her maths GCSE aged 12 and attained straight A’s in her Maths,

When seven years old, Cooke fell off, fractured her skull, and cycled home

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2008 was Nicole’s year, having also become world champion, Transworld Sport’s ‘Female Athlete of the Year’, and receiving an MBE. Despite these impressive accolades, Cooke manages to remain modest and her unbridled joy at having realised her dream is charming: “I couldn’t get to sleep until gone 3am on Sunday. I was just lying there thinking. I had the medal next to me. I just couldn’t sleep. I was so happy. The first feeling that I had when I woke up was ‘I’m an Olympic champion!’ It was so crazy”. Yet this cheeky persona is just one side to her character and belies an intense desire to win. Her tone changes as she explains what gives her the edge over her rivals: “Being determined. I think the desire to succeed can take me through hard moments in training and preparation, and the same in racing”. Nicole Cooke’s journey to achieving her current status as the world’s number one road cyclist provides an intriguing insight into a unique char-

Physics, and Biology A-levels. So why not pursue a career doing the 9-5? Her answer is simple; her utter love for cycling: “I like the freedom of being out riding and the sense of achievement when I get back after each ride or race. It’s a passion for me and I feel very lucky to be able to race and be successful”. As she recounts her formative years, it becomes apparent that her self-belief has often been the key to her success. This proved vital when, at only 16 years of age, she won her first senior title: the British Elite Road Race Championship. “I genuinely believed I could do it. My father and I had researched the course, my rivals and created a simple plan. But also, I had a tactical experience on a much higher level than my age suggested, because I had raced 5 summers in a row in Holland against the Dutch boys. There, strength alone is not enough”. Since that first extraordinary win in 1998, Nicole Cooke has won every award available to a female road cyclist, as well as adding eight more national championships to her record. However, softly-spoken Cooke is critical of the limited exposure female cyclists receive compared to other sports and Nicole

is disappointed by the lack of interest outside of the Olympics: “It’s a shame we only get recognised like this once every four years”. She believes that “if you give any sport a lot of time on TV, it will get more popular. Cycling is so different to football. You can’t win by a fluke goal or a lucky penalty - it’s a lot of hard work over a lot of months”. The male road cycling scene is fortunate to retain its mainstream event status, with the annual Tour de France. Still, Cooke

is positive about the female future of the sport here: “Cycling in Britain, especially for women, is rarely publicised and not very big - although it is growing. It the past we have been lucky to get 35 starters on the line, but this year I think we’ll get close to 60, which is great”. In terms of Nicole’s own future, she has a selfless ambition to use her newfound celebrity status to “put something back and help the next generation of cyclists. We need sponsorship, and I hope we get more coverage”.

Recognition: Cooke wins the 'Welsh Sports Personality of the Year' award

Having talked to Nicole Cooke, it is obvious that her special win in Beijing is more than enough reward for 14 years of hard graft. As she tells stories of the athletes’ camp, there is a childlike star struck innocence to her anecdotes: “At the Olympics it was a very special atmosphere because we were the best athletes in the world brought together. It was incredible to share the dining tables or queue for the laundry with heroes of different sports”. Yet, as is always the case, Cooke’s ability to use the experience to improve shines through, “It was very inspiring and it motivated me to give my best”. As the 2012 London Olympics beckon, and the weight of expectation begins to grown on our gold medal hopes, Cooke remains excited but seemingly oblivious to the pressure, “It’s a dream come true and to have a chance to do it all over again is fantastic”. Fingers crossed her winning smile will not just be on her own face come 2012, but across the face of the nation.

Commonwealth Champion World Cup x 2

British Champion x9

World Champion

Tour de France x2