# Nicole Cooke's New Team



## Flying_Monkey (17 Dec 2008)

So, Halford-Bikehut have pulled their sponsorship of Nicole Cooke's team in favour of their male squad, even though she has been far more successful than the men, and has practically been _the_ face of Boardman bikes for the last year.

But rather than go for a lucrative foreign contract, she's decided to build a British women's team around her. I am sure there's some very good reason why the Sky / British Cycling contract won't even part sponsor this... and there's the recession... for whatever reasons there no sponsors yet. But I think it is a brave decision, and good luck to her.

What does everyone else think?


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## yello (17 Dec 2008)

What do I think?

www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=24258

I reckon Nicole gets a bit of a raw deal in the UK. I think we can take if for granted that Nicole could have signed for a foreign team and been personally financially secure. She's opted not to and prefers to work here and develop UK talent. That's quite incredible, imo.


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## Skip Madness (17 Dec 2008)

Is this team going to be running under the same license as the old Swift Racing team, or is Stefan Wyman the only common link?


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## matt!!! (17 Dec 2008)

I think that Cycling is lucky to have Bikehut as a sponsor at all still. As with all companies, Halfords will be tightening the purse strings. The first things to go will be the extras that are not seen to be directly bringing in cash. Halfords has already announced 250 redundancies. Also, from what i have seen recently the mens team is going to be getting more and more successful year on year starting now. It may also have been noted that Boardman doesnt make a ladies frame..........


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## Skip Madness (17 Dec 2008)

When you look at the (lack of) coverage it gets, I am often surprised that
women's cycling gets any sponsors at all for certain races and teams.


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## Keith Oates (18 Dec 2008)

It's sad that we have one of, if not the, best female roadie in the world and we can't raise enough sponsorship to support her with a decent team. I would like to see her join one of the already established ladies team and show the world just how good she is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## girofan (18 Dec 2008)

Skip Madness said:


> When you look at the (lack of) coverage it gets, I am often surprised that
> women's cycling gets any sponsors at all for certain races and teams.



Britain will always be a desert for cycle sport. The motoring lobby has seen to that with fewer and fewer events taking place on the highway.
"I like to watch cycling on the road as long as it doesn't impact on me driving as fast as possibe," seems to be the attitude. So any sponsorship in GB will not be forthcoming especially for "WOMEN'S" teams!!
Sponsors would rather a female rallycross duo + car. 
Nicole, cut your losses and go where you are truly appreciated, Italy!!


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## peanut (18 Dec 2008)

Keith Oates said:


> It's sad that we have one of, if not the, best female roadie in the world and we can't raise enough sponsorship to support her with a decent team. I would like to see her join one of the already established ladies team and show the world just how good she is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Its disgraceful frankly. You don't have to look too far to see the reason why . CW again this week look at page 21 2008 review . quote 2008 will be remembered largely for the emphatic highs enjoyed by British cycling fans ' 
then look at the picture . One single female cyclist Vicky pendelton. Cooke and Romero nowhere to be seen .
BUT there is room for a picture of that bloody Yank again ??
Why ? what the hell has LA got to do with 2008 British Cycling ?!

Next page 23 mention of Cooke's Worlds win following her Olympic win and again no picture ? following page 24 and there is half a page spread to LA's comeback! wtf?
god it makes me so bloody mad I'm sorry but its all I can do not to swear.

Theres some very good articles in the CW this week and last but when the hell are we going to see the support and coverage our road race girls deserve. 
I've a good mind to start a womens cycling magazine. I reckon there would be at least as much demand as there is for a lot of other male orientated rags on the shelf


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## mondobongo (18 Dec 2008)

Nicole could give Oleg Tinkov a ring as he will not be involved with Team Katusha. Has pots of Cash and is cycling mad.


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## Skip Madness (18 Dec 2008)

The Oleg Tinkoff idea is actually very interesting - I wonder how interested he would be.


peanut said:


> everything


Also in this week's _Cycling Weekly_ Lionel Birnie tries to make the case that somehow Mark Cavendish's achievements this year are more impressive than Nicole Cooke's.

I wrote an e-mail yesterday to the Tour of Flanders organisers enquiring about live coverage of the women's race next season, which has not been replied to yet. Would anyone be interested in starting a campaign to make the demand for more women's cycling on the television known to broadcasters? Anyone got any ideas on what would be the best method to achieve this?


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## peanut (18 Dec 2008)

Skip Madness said:


> The Oleg Tinkoff idea is actually very interesting - I wonder how interested he would be.
> 
> Also in this week's _Cycling Weekly_ Lionel Birnie tries to make the case that somehow Mark Cavendish's achievements this year are more impressive than Nicole Cooke's.
> 
> I wrote an e-mail yesterday to the Tour of Flanders organisers enquiring about live coverage of the women's race next season, which has not been replied to yet. Would anyone be interested in starting a campaign to make the demand for more women's cycling on the television known to broadcasters? Anyone got any ideas on what would be the best method to achieve this?



count me in

maybe my idea about a female cycling magazine is not such a bad idea afterall. If Nicole published it , it would be a real success and bring in some welcome revenue to sponsor her team. 
It would be a brilliant showcase for women's cycle racing events across the board road, track, BMX ,cross, TT etc and Le T Feminin, Olympic preparation, 
As well as general cycling , commuting , fitness, triathlon, women specific bikes, clothing and gear etc etc .

Wonder how one could contact Nicole to suggest it


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## mr-marty-martin (18 Dec 2008)

cmon guys, sualy you mean a campaign to get cycling itself on mainstream t.v., and not just the big ones like the tour de france etc, how about the elite crits etc etc....


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## Skip Madness (18 Dec 2008)

mr-marty-martin said:


> cmon guys, sualy you mean a campaign to get cycling itself on mainstream t.v., and not just the big ones like the tour de france etc, how about the elite crits etc etc....


If you want that then do that. I am less interested in getting Elite Crits or any other cycling on mainstream (terrestrial, presumably) television than I am in getting the women's World Cup and stage races on television (say, Eurosport or ITV4 or Sky) at all.

The starting point for live coverage has to be the Tour of Flanders and Flèche Wallonne, as the women's races go a couple of hours before the men's - just stick a live feed on a bit earlier. We talked about this in the Olympics versus Worlds thread, too, but as the Giro Donne coincides with the men's Tour de France, although I don't think many of us instantly expect live coverage day-by-day, a nightly half-hour of highlights tacked on to the tail of the Tour highlights would be a good start which could suck in a lot of newcomers following the Tour.

A female cycling magazine is a nice idea - especially for getting more females interested in the sport - but surely it is better to demand more in-depth coverage from the already-existing cycling magazines? That would make the women more mainstream, I think. Wouldn't it be great if the women's Giro was given a huge preview in the same issue as the men's Tour?


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## Domestique (22 Dec 2008)

I remember Sean Kelly on Eurosport going on about how womens racing isnt as much of a team effort as mens cycling. If I was listening and remember correctly he said an individual woman could win a womans race, but a man without a strong team couldnt or would need to be exceptional in order to do so.
Having watched Nicole and the other women riding up that hill in Gerrardsbergen during this years Flanders race all I can say is they are tough


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## Will1985 (22 Dec 2008)

You might as well call it Team British Cycling... Surely getting riders mixing it with the big guns on the continent is the best way to develop talent? Neither H-B nor BC seemed to have much of a presence this season on the women's tour...granted, Nicole had based her season around one goal but that isn't much of a reason to hold back the other talents.


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## Skip Madness (22 Dec 2008)

Domestique said:


> I remember Sean Kelly on Eurosport going on about how womens racing isnt as much of a team effort as mens cycling. If I was listening and remember correctly he said an individual woman could win a womans race, but a man without a strong team couldnt or would need to be exceptional in order to do so.


This is partially true, mainly due to the lower speed in women's racing meaning that drafting is less efficient than at the higher speeds of men's racing. It still has a drastic effect, though - if it were possible for individual women to win without a team, there would hardly ever be a bunch sprint. Ina Teutenberg, Marianne Vos and Giorgia Bronzini give the lie to that. It is less important in mountain stages than in men's racing, but then teamwork is not always a big deal in men's mountain stages either - see Denis Menchov's two Vuelta wins.


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## alecstilleyedye (22 Dec 2008)

cooke was helped by pooley attacking in the olympics, as it wore her rivals out chasing down. she alluded to as much post race.


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## Skip Madness (30 Jan 2009)

If this page is anything to go by then it appears that Vision1 Racing is now registered for this season with the UCI. I cannot find any further information at the official website.

Anyway, the eight-rider squad is listed as:

Nicole Cooke - GBR
Katie Curtis - GBR
Gabriella Day - GBR
Dani King - GBR
Debby Van de Berg - NED
Aurore Verhoeven - FRA
Vicki Whitelaw - AUS
Helen Wyman - GBR

Stefan Wyman is manager and team representative and Andy Walser as his assistant.

Whitelaw is a superb addition to the squad, as evidenced by her stage wins in last year's Giro and Aude. Van de Berg and Wyman may not have a great many road results to their names but they do bring top level experience, as (to a lesser extent) does Gabby Day. I do not know much about King (the youngest member of the squad at 18) or Curtis, although the latter raced the Tour en Limousin in 2007. Aurore Verhoeven only turned 19 a couple of weeks ago but has shown great promise as a junior.

I am curious as to how this season will work for the team. The presence of Cooke and Whitelaw should, in theory, be an automatic qualifier for the European classics. Smaller stage races (Ardèche, Albstadt) should be OK, too. Where the big three races are concerned, an invitation to the Grande Boucle ought to be a given, but the Giro d'Italia and Tour de l'Aude may see any of the team's riders attending in their national teams as opposed to this team. My thinking is that the squad is not big enough (in numbers) to be able to field sizeable squads for all of these events, as well as other big races like Thüringen and Toscana. I suppose we will have to wait for the team to outline a calendar for this season before we will know any further.


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## Skip Madness (30 Jan 2009)

Just a bit more news on team transfers for anyone interested:

Lizzie Armitstead has joined Emma Silversides at Lotto-Belisol, while Leda Cox is staying at ESGL after some brief confusion over whether or not she was leaving. Catherine Hare has got herself an excellent move to Fenixs, as has Emma Pooley at Cervélo. Nikki Harris and Emma Trott have joined Femke Van Schleven and Kate Cullen at Moving Ladies. Rachel Heal is staying in the US but this season with Colavita, and Alice Monger-Godfrey has gone to Belgium with De Sprinter Malderen.


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## Flying_Monkey (31 Jan 2009)

Skip Madness said:


> Anyway, the eight-rider squad is listed as:
> 
> Nicole Cooke - GBR
> Katie Curtis - GBR
> ...



That squad looks like a nice combination of responsibility, aspiration and practicality on Cooke's part. She's certainly a refreshing change to the venal and selfish world of professional sport.


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## Skip Madness (31 Jan 2009)

Further to my point above about race invitations, Cicloweb have put up this document outlining the provisional ranking for elite teams in 2009 (based on performances from each team's four best-performing riders last season). All of the top ten teams get the first invitations to all x.1 ranked events, and all of the top twenty get the first invitations to World Cup races. Vision1 are ranked 11th, which means automatic qualification for World Cup rounds which they can accept or reject. They will have to rely on the discretion of the organisers of all other races for invitations, I think.

The 11th place ranking is pretty impressive considering it is only an eight-woman, fairly low-profile team - they are placed ahead of such teams as Dilà, Chirio, Fenixs and Leontien.nl.

By the way, I e-mailed ASO this morning about live coverage/highlights of the Flèche Wallone Femmes - I will let you know if and when they reply. I have not received anything back from the organisers of the Ronde van Vlaanderen.


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## Skip Madness (2 Mar 2009)

For anyone who is interested, the official website of Vision1 Racing says it is launching tomorrow. I suppose we may find out a lot more about the team then.


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## User169 (4 Mar 2009)

Skip Madness said:


> For anyone who is interested, the official website of Vision1 Racing says it is launching tomorrow. I suppose we may find out a lot more about the team then.




Nothing yet on the website; any news from elsewhere?


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## Skip Madness (4 Mar 2009)

Nothing more than the unveiling of the jersey.

Looking at the Vision1 website the title bar actually says "Launching 2nd March", the page itself says "Launching 3rd March" and today is the 4th! Maybe just some technical issues.

The team is not down to ride the GP Brissago at the weekend, so the earliest major races we might see them at could be the Costa Etrusca classics (three this year), which are a little over two weeks away. Cooke has won the Riparbella - Montescudaio three times in the past and they are good warm-up races for the Alfredo Binda.


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## Skip Madness (6 Mar 2009)

The website is online now. The have the calendar listed as far as the Tour de Berne:


> 08/02/09 Tour of Qatar 2.1
> 25/02/09 Tour of New Zealand 2.2
> 01/03/09 Wellington International 1.1
> 21/03/09 Costa Etrusca Montescudaio - Riparbella 1.2
> ...


Vicki Whitelaw competed at the New Zealand races in a composite team, which confirms the suspicion that at least some of this year's races will be run under composite/national teams. Interesting that the Costa Etrusca Rosignano - Livorno (which will be run for the first time) is not on their calendar. It is ranked 1.2 - the same as the other two races - and runs the day before the Montescudaio - Riparbella. I do not know if they are not riding it for a reason, or if they have just overlooked putting it on the website.


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## Skip Madness (7 Mar 2009)

This PDF document over at the Trofeo Costa Etrusca website has a bit of news about Nicole Cooke:


> *Nicole Cooke at the Trofeo Costa Etrusca
> 
> The winner in Beijing and Varese will train on the Etruscan Coast before commencing her season with the Trofeo Costa Etrusca, while being followed in Tuscany by a crew from the BBC.*
> 
> ...


Will that be _Inside Sport_, do you reckon? That seems to be the obvious thing to me, I know they have had segments on her in the past.

It will be nice to see something of women's cycling on the box, anyway.


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## Flying_Monkey (7 Mar 2009)

It's starting to look good. The question is whether their relatively young squad can really provide the support for Nicole in the big races. They will certainly have to learn fast! We shall see...


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## Skip Madness (17 Mar 2009)

The provisional start list has gone up in this PDF on the official website of the Costa Etrusca races.


The start list said:


> *Vision 1 Racing
> 
> * Nicole Cooke
> Vicki Whitelaw
> ...


Emma Pooley is also down for Cervélo.


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## User169 (17 Mar 2009)

So does this mean that Swift Racing is dead now?


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## Keith Oates (18 Mar 2009)

I only hope that Nicole can repeat her form of last year but I think that setting up and running with this team could be a mistake. Hope I'm wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Skip Madness (18 Mar 2009)

Delftse Post said:


> So does this mean that Swift Racing is dead now?


Essentially. This team retains some of the old infrastructure (well, Stefan Wyman) and can be seen as Swift's successor, but it is a total refit.


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## Skip Madness (22 Mar 2009)

Over at the Tour de l'Aude website it appears that Vision 1 are already signed up for this year's event. This is notable because last year Cooke rode as part of a composite Great Britain team which included Emma Pooley and Leda Cox among others. Vision 1 is down for this year by itself - I wonder if there will still be a separate GB team? There is no sign of it yet.

Anyway, the bad news is that I have taken a glance at the parcours and it looks absolutely shite. I cannot believe there are people who rate the Tour de l'Aude above the Grande Boucle, even with the Boucle being as short as it is these days. Whatever happened to mountain-top finishes in this race - at Pic de Nore, or Mijanes or the Fanjeaux or Font Romeu?


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## Skip Madness (26 Mar 2009)

Vision 1 were featured on the BBC News today, so that was what all of the camera crews were for - a bit less than I hoped, but hey at least it is national. You can see the report here.


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## Skip Madness (13 Jun 2009)

Nicole Cooke took her first win of the season today at the star-studded Emakumeen Bira. She also came second yesterday to Judith Arndt and now leads the GC.

It seems that Vision 1 will not be at either the Boucle or the Giro, instead opting for Trentino and Thüringen which is a bit of a surprise. Cooke has said this season that the main objective is the World Championships in Mendrisio, but it's a surprise to see such a light summer schedule.

Edit: In case anyone missed the news, Stefan Wyman has apparently left the team for reasons that are not 100% clear.


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## Keith Oates (13 Jun 2009)

Like you I've been a little puzzled at the race schedule Nicole seems to be following, I just hope she's OK and not carrying some injury or other problem!!


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## resal1 (13 Jun 2009)

Have Vision 1 picked up a sponsor yet ? If not, is it lack of finance that is preventing them attending the races ? 

It was nice to see the BC WCPP taking a team of U23 riders to the Women's Felche. I wonder what the relative accommodation and support systems were. BC must have contacts other than SKY trying to get an "in" with cycling. Should Sky be involved with a Women's team ?


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## Skip Madness (14 Jun 2009)

resal1 said:


> Have Vision 1 picked up a sponsor yet ? If not, is it lack of finance that is preventing them attending the races ?


They have various partners, although I don't know how well-off the team is. I'd be surprised if this is the reason for their non-attendances, though, since the line up for the Boucle features three very small teams (4 Life/Freebike, Charlottenburg Berlin and Royal Antwerp). The Giro has a higher standard of participation but if Vision 1 can manage six days in Germany then you'd think ten in Italy wouldn't be too much of a stretch. But if financial reasons aren't it, sporting reasons don't exactly add up either.



> BC must have contacts other than SKY trying to get an "in" with cycling. Should Sky be involved with a Women's team ?


I wasn't entirely keen on the idea of a men's Sky team, although I think that's mostly down to hating Murdoch. There's no doubt some big bucks could help things out, but there's not exactly an abundance of interest out there. Here we return to our circular arguments about lack of publicity and coverage...

You know, in a patronising kind of way I actually _like_ the thriftier approach to women's cycling even though I want to see it change. There is an undeniable romanticism to the stories of riders who are working during the morning or studying at university and only cycling in their spare time, for the _love_ of it; it's no replacement for an improved women's cycling infrastructure, but when pure professionalism has ripped the heart out of so much sport I am wary of seeing our women go the same way. Of course, when you think about the income differences between the top riders and the bottom ones it isn't really a tolerable situation, and to ensure talented and passionate riders aren't squeezed out there has to be financial development of the sport, but we should bear in mind the potential costs as well.


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## Skip Madness (14 Jun 2009)

By the way, Cooke won another stage today, although Judith Arndt leads the GC thanks to a good time trial victory in the morning. Those two are sharing the race between themselves at the moment.


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## resal1 (14 Jun 2009)

I agree. It is hard to think of a sport that has not been distorted to a new less attractive shape by the arrival of big bucks. In so many ways the story of the women's tour is probably more fascinating than the men's. It would be great to find out more about what motivates the reiders. It is not the "I earn loads of dosh, far more than I could get in a normal day job" type motive. Pooley continuing to work for her PhD. Cooke getting her Maths GCSE at 12. These are not your characature "dumb" athletes.

Staying on money though, weren't Vision 1 meant to have gone to Philadelphia ? It would be sad to think that with lots of ££££'s sloshing around the GB men's scene the GB women were starved of cash ? 

Great to see Cooke get back to wining ways.


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## Skip Madness (14 Jun 2009)

resal1 said:


> Staying on money though, weren't Vision 1 meant to have gone to Philadelphia ?


For the Liberty Classic? I don't know - I hadn't heard about it. It doesn't sound good if that was the case.


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