15/08/2004 28th OLYMPIC GAMES ATHENS 2004 - Nella prova su strada la gallese Cooke cade ma è quinta Not allowed to ride in Sydney in 2001, this time it wasn't officials but road race tactics that denied Nicole her dream of winning Olympic Gold. She'd looked good during the quiet early stages of this race and made a decisive group of 7. Unfortunately with two Australians in the group they took Gold, Sara Carrigan out sprinting Judith Arndt of Germany, and in the sprint for bronze Olga Slyusareva just beat Oneone Wood and Nicole, who finished fifth. For a full blow by blow account of the race look back on our live coverage here The weather was not as hot as it had been during the previous week, and the race pace wasn't hot either as the contenders were all happy to allow the early laps to pass by. The Dutch team were prominent on the front in the early stages with Mirjam Melchers and Leontien Ziljard-Van Moorsel. French veteran Jeanie Longo also showed well during the first few laps. The first real attack though didn't come until lap 4 when Spain's Eneritz Iturriaga Mazaga went away. At the maximum her lead was 1 minute 14 seconds, but it was clear the field were quite happy to let her have her moment until they decided to real her in. It was on lap five that things became more animated on the front with the Dutch and the Candians in the action and Germany's Judith Arndt showing her strength for the first time. Nicole was looking comfortable sat in the main field always alongside Rachel Heal, but as the group split on the fifth climb she responded quickly to be with the leaders as Iturriaga Mazaga was swept up. The next few laps followed similar patterns with Sonia Huguet of France and Candians Lyne Bessette attacking before the race settled down again. Each time the climb put plenty of riders under pressure with Nicole looking comfortable and Arndt looking amongst the strongest. Another Canadian's attack Susan Palmer-Komar had more impact on weary legs The penultimate lap caused the real shake up and at the end of that a group of seven riders had created the decisive selection. Missing was World Champion Suzanne Ljunskog and Van Moorsel who crashed whilst on the front. But Melchers was there, along with Nicole, Joanne Sommariba, two Australians, Ardnt and a late joinee Olga Slyusereva of Russia. Sara Carrigan was also one of the last to bridge across and with Oneone Wood also in the group Australia clearly had an advantage. They played that card with Carrigan going early on the final lap. Nobody responded to begin with, but then Arndt attacked the chasers and caught the Australian before the climb. Although Carrigan looked tired towards the top of the hill she was either kidding or recovered well in the last five kilometres as she easily outsprinted the German at the finish. Nicole hit the bottom of the final climb hard looking to get away from the others and try to catch the leading two. But Melchers quickly led the chasers back to her wheel. Then on the descent Edita Pucinskaite over shot a corner, hampering Nicole and Melchers who had a lot of work to do to catch up with the other riders now hunting bronze. As they regrouped it looked like Wood and Nicole would contest the sprint for third but the Russian Slyusereva just hung on. A clearly disappointed Nicole had to settle for fifth, but still found time to show another touch of sportsmanship with a tap on Australian Wood to recognise her effort in taking fourth. Nicole now needs to revover quickly and prepare for the time trial on Wednesday. INTERVIEW NICOLE COOKE "Firstly I'm devastated. Deeply disappointed." " I came to get Gold, but that's road racing, and I'm not sure I could have done much else." "Secondly congratulations to Sara Carrigan, she deserved it. You won't find a harder won Gold medal at these games, or in any race." "I'd also like to thank Rachel (Heal) and Sara (Symington) because they did everything I could have asked of them in the early part of the race." "When 6 or 7 of us got away with a little less than two laps to go I expected that to be the decisive selection, and I thought the make up of the group was good." "Slyusareva wouldn't work though. She wanted to save herself for the sprint and there were others who didn't contribute fully to the group." "It's sport, and I beleive it's only fair that everybody in a group should do their fair share of the work." "I think that's the right belief, but maybe in future I should be more sly." "I wasn't going to just sit on the back, and I'd just done a strong turn on the front when Carrigan attacked and when Arndt went after her." "I looked around and nobody else would take responsibility. If I'd gone again and chased them down I wouldn't have had the energy to get a medal. Sometimes you have to risk losing to win." "I suppose psychologically when I knew I wasn't going to get gold maybe that's why I messed up on that corner, and after that I wasn't going to get bronze either." "I'll now prepare for the Time Trial, but honestly the Road Race was my best chance of Gold, and it will be hard for you to understand how disappointed I am." 1 Sara Carrigan (Australia) km in 3.24.24 media 34.873 km/h 2 Judith Arndt (Germany) 0.07 3 Olga Slyusareva (Russia) 0.39 4 Oenone Wood (Australia) 5 Nicole Cooke (Great Britain) 6 Mirjam Melchers (Netherlands) 0.42 7 Joane Somarriba Arrola (Spain) 8 Kristin Armstrong (USA) 9 Edita Pucinskaite (Lithuania) 0.46 10 Jeannie Longo Ciprelli (France) 0.59 23 Iryna Chuzhynova (Ukraine) 1.18 37 Giorgia Bronzini (Italy) 4.15 Suggestivo passaggio sotto l'Acropoli. A destra si riconosce Giorgia Bronzini