Nicole Cooke yesterday gave the perfect riposte to those who doubted her appetite for the fight by winning the World Road Race title in Varese, Italy for the first time. In a masterful display, Cooke and her British team mates coped with whatever the race threw at them, having someone in the decisive breaks and chasing down every move to leave Nicole with the task of nailing the sprint for the line. This she duly did out-gunning her Dutch rival Marianne Vos to win by a bike length. In what turned out to be a thrilling compeitive race the British team of Cooke, Emma Pooley, Elizabeth Armistead, Sharon Laws, and Jessica Allen never lost their nerve and rode an intelligent race. Afterwards Cooke was quick to praise the efforts of her team mates in putting her in a position to win. "When I started the race I was very relaxed because I’d already achieved my goal for the year which was to win the Olympics. "But I was set up perfectly by my team-mates. What more can you ask for?" Surprisingly though before the race many pundits mistook here relaxed demeanour for a lack of hunger and were predicting that Cooke might not be up for the fight because of her Olympic Gold in Beijing. This proved to be a fundamental mis-reading of what drives Nicole Cooke, she is the supreme competitor – Cooke only races to win. Ironically in the past when up against more tactically astute opponents this had sometimes been her undoing. In the last couple of seasons though Cooke has begun to marry her massive talent, and will to win, with a greater tactical maturity. It also seems to have dawned on her that bicycle racing is a team sport – success is not just about being the best rider, having a good team around you being prepared to put it on the line. Team GB are certainly prepared to do that. One other factor that may well have spurred Cooke on, at some level at least, is the realisation that the 23-year old Vos looks like she has a talent to match her own. Yesterday’s race suggests that these two will be battling it out for the big prizes for the next few years. Although she dominated the Worlds as a junior, Cooke has never taken the senior title, her best results being two bronzes and a silver. A group of 12 riders inluding the American Kristin Armstrong and Team GB’s Eliszabeth Armistead, lead the field for most of the 86-mile (138.4 kilometre) race, at one time getting as far as 2 minutes up on the main field. Emma Pooley (GB), attacking off the front of the main field eventually brought the chasing pack up to the escape – just as the race entered it’s final lap. This set things up for five riders to contest the medal placings – Cooke, Vos, Arndt, German Trixi Worrack and Sweden’s Emma Johansson. The two Germans, Arndt and Worrack, then launched a series of attacks to try and break their rivals – Johansson then appeared to get the drop on the others by going for a long-range finish with 2km to go. Vos though chased her down but at the same time also pulled Cooke up and Nicole then put the power down to hit the front where it counted most crossing the line a bike length in front of her Dutch rival. "I tried to get back on her wheel," added 25-year-old Cooke. "After a long race 100 metres can seem more like 200. Dutch rider Vos said: "I felt good in the last lap. I couldn’t do any better, I couldn’t go faster. "Last year I started my sprint too late and this year I thought I had gotten it just right. "When I looked back and saw Nicole coming on strong I knew I couldn’t win. I’m still second, it’s still a spot on the podium." GB cycling supermo David Brailsford said: "Nicole has shown that she is the best around at the moment. "It is brilliant for Nicole and the rest of the team. We really are a team to be reckoned with now." The Road World Championships finish today with the Men’s Road Race. You can watch it live online on the BBC website.
Or watch the BBC’s live coverage on digital TV between 0930 and 1630 by pressing the red button, or catch the highlights between 1800 and 1900 on BBC2. Women’s road race result 1.Nicole Cooke (GB) 3hrs 42mins 11secs?2. 2.Marianne Vos (Ned) at same time? 3.Judith Arndt (Ger) at same time? 4.Emma Johansson (Swe) +5 secs? 5.Trixi Worrack (Ger) +11secs 6.?Diana Ziliute (Lit) +1:47"? 7.Marta Vilajosana (Spa) at same time? 8.Joanne Kiesanowski (NZ) at same time? 9.Alex Wrubleski (Can) at same time? 10.Yulia Martissova (Rus) at same time Selected others: 28.Sharon Laws (GB) 3hrs 43mins 58secs ? 35. Emma Pooley (GB) +1:56 ? 41. Elizabeth Armitstead (GB) +5.24 ?61. Jessica Allen (GB) +6.11
Cooke wins first senior World title
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These stats aren't evidence, they show correlation. Without isolating the variables they don't actually say that much about the impact of the change. Speed limits are an ineffective tool when the problem is drivers not driving in an appropriate manner for the conditions and environment. Those drivers weren't following the speed limit and/or paying sufficient attention anyway! If that is the problem and you don't deal with it, but you want to keep reducing injuries/fatalities, you have to keep dropping speed limits until you prohibit road use entirely. The solution is driving standards improvement (education) and enforcement. In wider terms but more importantly it's better city design, reducing commuting distances by reforming the housing market (to an easily exchanged basic human need - shelter, not primarily an asset with massive financial inertia to change) But that's expensive, in £, time, administration, politics.
@OnYerBike I also find Zwift is a best bet if you want a very easy recovery ride on a windy day. A lot of my cycling is on the fens, where wind is a huge factor, making it difficult to keep power at a low level. An indoor ride on a flat course like Tempus Fugit or similar is perfect - as long as I ride to my power level and don't try to catch other riders.
Bet that Patrick Stewart was a menace - running red(shift) lights at warp speed, and then appearing out of nowhere...
@DrG82 - on the other hand not doing it would merely have been a waste of life.
@Rapha Nadal I believe there other platforms such as TrainerRoad that would let you do that, although you'd need both the (standard) Zwift subscription and a subscription to TrainerRoad on top, which comes to a higher total. I know Zwift does now let you sync with Garmin etc. so it does "know" about your outside bike rides, although it's unclear how thoroughly integrated this is (e.g. if you manually recreate the recommended workout outside, is that recognized as being equivalent training?) That said, whilst in general I much prefer riding outside, indoor training does have distinct advantages for structured training - you can just focus on hitting the target power and not have to worry about traffic/traffic lights/potholes/hills etc.
No - it's just that that bright yellow demands all the attention, so the rest of your kit gets overlooked.
Except that, er, they did consider exceptions, in that they specifically provided in the legislation for local authorities to apply exceptions. You could argue over how long they had to implement them, but to say they weren't considered is just not true. And the fact that a few roads have now changed back isn't 'backtracking' - it's authorities using the legislation as designed.
@Rendel Harris I'm confused. Who the hell was he shouting at?? You were "invisible" after all. After years of riding I've concluded that all of my bikes have a cloaking device fitted to them. It's the only explanation for the litany of close passes, left hooks, near misses and collisions that I've been on the end of. Even when wearing bright clothing & running lights in broad daylight, I once found myself airborne over the bonnet of a Kia Sportage whose driver piled onto the roundabout I was already negotiating. The drivers response, having stood by whilst passers by helped my broken form out of the road, was the ubiquitous "I didn't see you". Never fear though, there is a safety mechanism that kicks in occasionally (but only if another rider jumps a red light). At that point I can be seen from space by Daily Mail readers - I know this because I've more than once been subjected to a tirade of abuse about red light jumping cyclists from drivers.......whilst I have been waiting at a red light.
I feel that this is the way platforms are heading now but this would only appeal to me if i could take a session outside rather than being chained to the turbo for all of them.
@Boopop I think every cyclist has stories of being lit up like a Christmas tree, and all the works, yet still having a SMIDSY moment