Cooke calls time on cycling career

Cyclist Nicole Cooke, one of Wales’ biggest sporting stars, has called time on her glittering career with a parting shot at those in her sport who had turned to performance enhancing drugs.

A gold medal winner at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and the 2008 Road World Championships at Varese and Olympics in Beijing, the Vale of Glamorgan resident also earned an MBE for her achievements in the sport.

She announced her retirement this week, amid the media storm surrounding Lance Armstrong’s appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show in the United States.

She said: “I am very happy with my career. I have many, many happy memories over what has been my life’s work since I was 12.

“I have won every race, and more, that I dreamed I could win. As a little girl of 12, after beating all the boys at the Welsh cyclo cross championships, I stood in front of the TV cameras and stated to the BBC reporter…’I want to win the Tour de France and win the Olympic Road Race’.

“At 12 I dreamed like every child. I hoped that some of my dreams could come true. You cannot imagine how happy I am to be here with you now, with my dreams fulfilled. I am very happy.”

Recounting her early career as a junior and the hurdles overcome for a young female cyclist, she also had some comments to make on her experiences with doping on the cycling circuit.

“I did not have long to wait before encountering suspicious circumstances,” she remembers. “In the fridge [in a team house] were various bottles and vials with diaphragms on top for extracting the contents via syringes. I rang dad and asked what I should do. We chatted it through and came to the conclusion that even condoning the presence of ‘medicines’ in the house I was staying, could lead to pressure being put on me. So, I emptied the fridge and put the lot out in the front garden and [said] either it went or I went. It went.

“I have had days where temptation to start onto the slippery slope was brought in front of me. [In one race] I was asked what “medicines” I would like to take to help me, and was reminded that the team had certain expectations of me during the race and I was not living up to them with my performance over the last couple of stages. I said I would do my best until I had to drop out of the race, but I was not taking anything.

“I am appalled that so many men bleat on about the fact that the pressures were too great. Too great for what? This is not doing 71mph on the motorway when the legal limit is 70. This is stealing somebody else’s livelihood.

“I have been robbed by drug cheats, but I am fortunate, I am here before you with more in my basket than the 12-year-old dreamed of. But for many genuine people out there who do ride clean; people with morals, many of these people have had to leave the sport with nothing after a lifetime of hard work — some going through horrific financial turmoil. When Lance “cries” on Oprah later this week and she passes him a tissue, spare a thought for all of those genuine people who walked away with no reward – just shattered dreams. Each one of them is worth a thousand Lances.”