Nicole Cooke

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nicole Cooke
With a victory on the final stage, Nicole Cooke secured the overall victory at the Thuringia Tour 2006.

Nicole Cooke MBE (born April 13, 1983 in Swansea , Wales ) is a former British cyclist . She is one of the most successful British cyclists of all time.

Athletic career

She began her racing career at the age of eleven. She won practically everything there was to be won in the UK school and youth categories. She was successful on the road, on the track, in the time trial , on a mountain bike and in cyclocross .

In 2000 she became the junior world champion in road racing for the first time. She repeated this success in 2001 and in the same year also became World Junior Champion in time trials and on mountain bikes. In 2002 she moved to the elite category and won the gold medal in road racing at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester . At the 2003 World Cycling Championships, she won the bronze medal in the road race.

In 2004 she secured the overall victory in the Giro d'Italia , but did not get past fifth place at the Olympic Games in Athens . At the 2005 World Cycling Championships she was second behind Regina Schleicher in the road race . In 2006 Nicole Cooke won the International Thuringia Tour for Women . In 2003 and 2006, she also won the Women's Cycling World Cup .

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, she won gold in the road race in a sprint of a five-man leading group.

Resignation and criticism

Cooke ended her career at the end of the 2012 season. She combined her written declaration of resignation with harsh criticism of doping drivers: “I was robbed by dopers, even if I have more in my basket than I had dreamed of as a 12-year-old . But many out there who also drove clean, people with morals, left the sport with nothing after a lifetime of work. "She also criticized Lance Armstrong and Tyler Hamilton :" If Lance cries at Oprah this week and she does give him a handkerchief, then think of all those real people who left with no distinction. "In closing, she wrote," While the UCI was delving into the receipts for the equipment they bought with Lance's donation and Floyd sued Landis after he unpacked and held press conferences calling Landis a liar - while they were doing all these important things, women's cycling, which seemed so hopeful when I turned pro in 2002, has crumbled. "

In August 2016, Cooke was extremely critical of the fact that British driver Lizzie Armitstead had missed three doping tests and was still not banned by the CAS .

Private life

In 2008 Cooke published the book Cycle for Life . In 2014 her autobiography The Breakaway was published . In the same year she graduated from Cardiff University with a Master of Business Administration .

Palmarès

Teams

Web links

Commons : Nicole Cooke  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cyclingnews.com of January 14, 2013: Nicole Cooke retires from cycling
  2. ↑ World and Olympic champion Nicole Cooke declares resignation on radsport-news.com v. January 15, 2013
  3. ↑ Retired Olympic champion Cooke expresses opinion on Armitstead's case. In: Cycling News. August 2, 2016, accessed November 27, 2016 .
  4. ^ Superwomen of Wales unite at annual conference. cardiff.ac.uk, October 28, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Cooke, Nicole
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1983
PLACE OF BIRTH Swansea , Wales