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 IT just keeps getting better for World Cup leader Nicole Cooke.
The 2003 champion from Wick scored the biggest time-trial win of her career in Lausanne, Switzerland, in April when she beat a high-quality field to capture the prestigious Magali Pache.
"I am so excited with this result," she said. "For the last few years it has been a rollercoaster ride with injuries, crashes and problems with teams.
"At long last things seem to be settling out. I am with a superbly organised team, I am able to train properly and things are starting to go right."
Cooke was junior World Time-Trial Champion in 2001 and had not won a single individual time-trial since - but that changed in Lausanne, where the field included former Olympic time-trial champion Zoulfia Zabirova of Russia - who recently won the Berner-Rundfahrt, the fifth round of the World Cup - and former Olympic road race champion Kathy Watt of Australia.
"It was the first time I have ever ridden the event and the course was certainly very challenging," said Cooke. "However, I went round yesterday with our Swiss manager and my team-mate Priska Doppmann and we conducted a thorough review of the course.
"Today was my first race on my new Raleigh-Univega time-trial bike and it was superb. On the final climb to the finish I tried to pace myself properly. Normally I have someone alongside, who I know I am going to beat. Today I was on my own."
Runner-up Doppmann was just 0.3 seconds behind Cooke.
The win in Lausanne follows Cooke's fifth placing in the Berner-Rundfahrt and her victory in the Fleche Wallonne in Belgium, which put her in pole position in the 2006 World Cup.
But perhaps her biggest achievement of 2006 will go down as being her bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, where she was defending 100K road race champion.
"To finish on the podium against the best ever Australian female cycling team is a remarkable achievement," said Australian coach Warren McDonald, summing up what was arguably the Welsh performance of Melbourne 2006. "Nicole Cooke is a class act and produced a wonderful ride."
So what was so special about the gold medallist from Manchester getting a bronze in Melbourne? Well, it was the way she single-handedly took on six world-class Australians and still claimed a medal.
In an event where the gold medal is decided by team tactics, Cooke overcame no support riders to produce a brilliant ride to claim third place behind Australian gold medallist Natalie Bates and her team-mate Oenone Wood.
"Even though Nicole is one of the best riders in the world she was on her own, while we had six riders who are in good form and ready to race for each other," said Wood. "Nicole came into this race definitely on the back foot and she did everything she could."
To highlight Cooke's disadvantage, all the Australians took to the podium for the medal ceremony outnumbering the Welsh cyclist by six to one.
"Just seeing the medal ceremony showed what I was up against," said Cooke. "The Australians have a fantastic team, had the advantage in strength and numbers and rode the perfect race. I am delighted, and for me it is as good as gold in Manchester given the situation I was in. It is everything I could have hoped for and I did everything I could.
"Thinking about the support the other teams had the different possibilities they had at their disposal, I am over the moon."
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