June 11, 2003 – 20 year old Nicole Cooke (Mista 1 Deia Pragma Raschiani) has just returned home from the Tour of Grand Montreal, where she had to stop racing early due to a crash. The Welsh rider is currently leading the World Cup, and after some R and R, is set to continue her defense of her series in the second half of the year. Pedal had a chance to talk to Cooke, and find out how she is feeling.

Pedal: Nicole, you're back home now. You had a pretty rough crash, but thankfully it wasn't as bad as some had announced prematurely. What happened in the fall?

Cooke: I was riding in the main group following the rider in front as we were echeloned out in the left hand gutter, then, without any warning the rider in front swerved out and the next thing I saw was the back of a commissaire's motorbike parked in the road! There was no time to respond and I basically ploughed straight into the back of it snapping my frame neatly in two pieces, with one of the edges cutting deeply into my left knee, and going over the handlebars hitting my left arm on the luggage box on the back of the motorbike. As soon as I landed I knew that I was not going to even try getting up, and that my race was over.

One of my team mates who actually landed on me threw my bike off me, straightened out my left leg which she said was in an awful mess, and then got chasing the bunch while I waited for the rest of the riders to get off me and for the medics to arrive. At first I just remember the severe pain in my arm and thinking it must be broken, and then after a few more minutes it dawned on me just how serious my injuries could be and that I may be off the bike for weeks, even months and that my season could be finished. At this point I lost my composure, starting to shout at the medics and others around me, it just felt so awful being helpless, wanting everything to be OK but knowing that this unbearable pain meant something was wrong that would need time to heal and recover.

Later in Hospital, x-rays showed no breaks which I should have been relieved about, it was just that the medics then tried to X-ray my arm in very unusual positions to get a view of every possible angle just to make sure, and the pain this was causing was bringing tears to my eyes as they twisted and turned my arm for about 10 minutes. One internal and six external stitches and the knee was sewn up and looking normal again, but very painful to move. We then had a bit of a pantomine while the issue of paying for the treatment was sorted out and I hobbled back to the team car and we set off home with my teammates who had all come to the hospital to see how I was.

Pedal: How is your leg feeling now?

Cooke: Tomorrow (Thursday) is judgement day when I will go for a short ride, but I can walk easily, climb the stairs and move without any pain so I am fairly confident there in no serious damage. The swelling finally went down over the weekend, but it was replaced by the worst bruising I have ever seen – bright green and purple, but this too should soon be back to normal.

Pedal: What's next for you, and how do you feel going into the next world cups later in the season?

Cooke: Depending on exactly how I recover, my first race back is likely to be the Giro de Trentino, which is a hilly 2-day race in Italy, and then the Giro at the beginning of July. At the start of the season the Giro was one of my main aims, but now the World Cup has taken priority so I will be riding the Giro looking for the odd stage win rather than the overall, and just concentrate on getting myself in great shape for Plouay at the end of August.

I feel fairly relaxed going into the final three rounds of the World Cup, I didn't race the Plouay round last year so it is the first time I will be going back there after winning my Junior World title there so I am really looking forward to returning. It will bring back fantastic memories and is a great course suited to my style of riding so I will be looking to pick up points there. As for the final two rounds, they are both flat-ish courses so first our team strategy will depend on the points situation – but I can hold my own in a sprint so am not too worried about my main rivals for the World Cup overall.

At the start of the year I had hoped to win an early season round, and then maybe one at the end of the year when I would be out of the reckoning for the overall, but to have won two, and found myself in the lead after six of nine rounds is almost unreal! I just need to arrive in Plouay in good form and race “tranquila e con testa” as the Italians say!