Cycling: Cooke keeps her cool to outgun more senior rivals

The word "phenomenon" and the name Nicole Cooke were welded together even more solidly on Saturday after a powerful late surge by the Welsh cyclist gained her the gold medal in the women's road race.

Already the holder in 2001 of all three junior world titles – road, time trialling and mountain-biking – the 19-year-old from Cowbridge showed she knows how to outgun the senior women as well when she outsprinted six other riders on the Rivington circuit. Canada's Susan Palmer-Kolmer finished second and England's Rachel Heal was a noteworthy third.

"I did think I could win – it's been an objective since January," said Cooke. "But this victory was more tactical than my junior world titles. I had to keep my cool."

In her final year as a junior last season, Cooke's superiority was such that, on occasions – like at last year's World Championships in Portugal – she could attack a peloton with such ferocity it would fall apart almost at her whim. But the switch to the senior category has made her naturally more prudent. In the Games road race, she preferred to bide her time in the main peloton until just over half-way through the eight-lap, 7.2 mile circuit, before applying some pressure on the one steep climb above Rivington village.

With an estimated 65,000 spectators lining the route – the biggest crowds seen in UK cycling since the 1994 Tour de France stages – Cooke's intiative shattered the 35-strong pack. The lead group of 12 which emerged was whittled down to seven by the challenging hilly terrain, although there were some distinctly risky moments in the final lap for Cooke.

She lost control of her bike on a dangerous left-hand corner and skidded out of the front group with three kilometres to go. Despite her close shave with a signpost, Cooke rapidly returned to the fray.

The group's hesitation as the finishing gantry loomed proved fatal for the six other breakaways. Not only did the Welshwoman regain contact and recover from her chasing, their dithering allowed her to launch a blistering attack 400 metres from the line that sentenced the race in her favour.

Cooke always oozes optimism – "I had set myself some pretty big goals this year, and I didn't want to blow it," she said afterwards – but the run-up to the event itself had been uneven for the Welshwoman. A disappointing 10th place in the time trial event a week ago was seen, in some quarters, as the inevitable result of a high-paced start to her first professional season. Cooke's victory at Rivington was her typically defiant answer to those criticisms.

Yesterday, Cooke flew to 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands to take part in her first ever women's Tour de France, as part of defending champion Joanne Somarriba's Deia-Pragma-Colnago squad.

Her initial race objective is to work for her Basque leader, twice a winner of the Tour, but renewed motivation after Man-chester could well see Cooke upping the stakes on the two-week, 1,500 mile ride through France.

Alasdair Fotheringham writes for Cycling Weekly