12/01/2005 Nicole Cooke wonderwoman tra pista e ciclocross Nicole experienced a variety of weekend competition to spice up her winter training. On Friday (7th January) she rode the Points race at the Track World Cup Meeting in Manchester. After qualifying with ease by a strong performance in her heat Nicole then took the first Sprint in the final. She also featured strongly in the next two sprints, putting in a lot of effort in the early part of the race. However she wasn't part of an Australian/Italian combine of three riders who gained a lap and with it an extra 20 points. That proved decisive with Kathy Bates winning and Nicole 6th. Two days later she gave up the dry and the heat of the Velodrome for a wet and windy Abergavenny course staging the National Cross Championships. She finished fourth behind cross specialist Louise Robinson who retained her title. "The course was a very technical one, and quite slow," said Nicole who's only been back riding off road for the last month, "whilst I think the track World Cup showed the value of experience a rider like Kathy (Bates) has in the event." "Obviously if you enter something you want to do well," explains Nicole, "though neither are big objectives for the year." "They weren't even on the plan until recently, especially the points race in Manchester." Nicole was asked to join the British Track team for the World Cup event after her recent winning performance in the points race at Revolution 6. "I did think hard about it, but I enjoyed the experience in Manchester and I have been riding on the Velodrome in Newport." "The standard will be high, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out. " "More of my focus at the moment is on off road training, and I've always done cross events during the winter," points out Nicole in regards to her decision to enter the British Cyclo Cross Championship. She last competed in the race in 2001 when she took the title even though she was still a junior. "Because I've been doing a bit of 'cross it would have seemed odd not to enter since the race is being held here in Wales so close to my home." The event in Abergavenny, just two days after the World Cup race , is on Sunday (9th January). "it's just another challenge as part of my preparation for 2005, but I'll go out there and try to win if I can." After the events her winter training will continue in Wales until she returns to Italy in February with a warm weather training camp also a possibility. WOMEN'S POINTS RACE WORLD CUP MANCHESTER 1 Katherine Bates (Australia) 34 pts 2 Vera Carrara (Italy) 31 3 Alexis Rhodes (Australia) 28 4 Lyudmyla Vypyraylo (Ukraine) 20 5 Yulia Arustamova (Russian Federation) 9 6 Nicole Cooke (Great Britain) 9 7 Marlijn Binnendijk (Netherlands) 8 8 Apollinaria Bakova (Russian Federation) 7 9 Ashley Kimmet (United States Of America) 5 10 Adrie Visser (Netherlands) 3 BRITISH CYCLO-CROSS CHAMPIONSHIP 1 Louise Robinson (Stourbridge CC) 2 Victoria Wilkinson (Science in Sport.com) 3 Helen Wyman (Toyota Motor Company) 4 Nicole Cooke (Safi-Pasta Zara) 5 Gabriella Day (Team Bottecchia/Fat Birds Don't Fly) 6 Clare Gross (Ace RT/Farmers/Impsport/Dolan) 7 Michelle Bergstrand (Eastern Region Velo/Bianchi) 8 Hazel Wakefield (Individual Member) 9 Lydia Gould (Hargroves Cycles/Trant/Next/Scot) 10 Claire Lines (Gateway RT) La britannica Nicola Cooke in azione - Photo@Larry Hickmott