Nicole Cooke's New Team

[Skip Madness]

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.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

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

 

[Skip Madness]

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.

 

[Skip Madness]

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.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

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

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.

 

[Skip Madness]

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.

 

[Skip Madness]

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.

 

[User169]

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?

 

[Skip Madness]

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.

 

[Skip Madness]

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
• 22/03/09 Costa Etrusca Santa Luce - Castellina 1.2
• 29/03/09 Trofeo Alfredo Binda CDM
• 05/04/09 Ronde van Vlaanderen CDM
• 22/04/09 La Flèche Wallonne CDM
• 10/05/09 Tour de Berne CDM

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.

 

[Skip Madness]

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.

Olympic champion in Beijing and world champion in Varese, Nicole Cooke has now arrived in Italy and is destined for the Etruscan Coast. The Welshwoman, whose profile is at an all-time high after her successes on the road last year, has chosen the region in order to prepare for a 2009 in which she hopes she will once more be a major protagonist. Fifteen days of training geared towards getting into racing condition followed by a season debut - personally chosen by Cooke - at the Trofeo Costa Etrusca testify to the bond between the history-making Briton and the races organised by the Acd Costa Etrusca under Renzo Parietti - races already won by Cooke in 2002 and 2005 on the streets of Rosignano and in 2007 on those of Castellina Marittima. On last the two occasions, Cooke dominated the race, arriving at the finish alone to the rapturous applause of the Tuscan fans.

Cooke is now ready to return to the peloton for 2009 in her rainbow jersey and new team of Vision 1 Racing, and will be followed through the month of March in Italy by a crew from the BBC television station, which is documenting the return to cycling of the extraordinary Welsh athlete. Consequently, the BBC's sports coverage will follow the three days of racing at the Trofeo Costa Etrusca, casting a look at Cooke and at the entire women's peloton - a peloton in which Cooke's distinction testifies to her results over the seasons.

Renzo Parietti, patron of the Trofeo Costa Etrusca, is very satisfied. "To have Cooke in attendance once more is a great pleasure," he said. "She has been a local in the past and has a connection to our roads. She is at the peak of her popularity after what she achieved in 2008 and now she has chosen to commence her season with us. We know Nicole loves Tuscany and considers it the ideal location to train for the year ahead. It is demonstrated by the fact that she has already arrived in the province of Livorno for a block of training and will remain here beyond our races, until the first round of the World Cup at Cittiglio on the final Sunday of March."

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.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

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...

 

[Skip Madness]

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

Vision 1 Racing

Nicole Cooke
Vicki Whitelaw
Helen Wyman
Debby van den Berg
Christel Ferrier-Bruneau
Aurore Verhoeven

Emma Pooley is also down for Cervélo.

 

[User169]

So does this mean that Swift Racing is dead now?

 

[Keith Oates]

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!