April 10, 2007 – Nicole Cooke continued her winning ways with an emphatic defence of the World Cup Leader’s jersey in the Ronde van Vlaanderen on April 8. The Raleigh Lifeforce Creation rider has maximum points from the two rounds of the 2007 UCI World Cup series so far. Cooke easily outsprinted Zoulfia Zabirova (Team Bigla) and Marianne Vos (DSB Bank) in a finale which saw the leaders arrive in a string, rather than a bunch; such was the severity of the race and the winner’s finishing effort.

The bunch stayed pretty much together for the first part of the race. There were some attempts to break away, but all were brought back. The first climb, Molenberg, at 43km saw the bunch splinter into groups and lone riders fighting to regain sight of the leaders. The vicious climb caused several retirements on the run over to the second climb, Wolvenberg. Things came pretty much together again at the front, even though some slower riders were lost from the rear of the bunch.

Karin Thürig (Raleigh Lifeforce Creation) broke away from the bunch with about 40 kilometres to go. The 2005 World Time Trial Champion was allowed to build an advantage of almost a minute. She led all the way in towards the finish, until joined by team-mate Nicole Cooke on the penultimate climb, the Wall “Muur-Kapelmuur”.

The pair were caught in the closing kilometres and a small group formed to contest the final sprint it consisted of : Cooke, Thürig, Susanne Ljungskog (who was wearing number 1 in the absence of the injured defending Champion, Mirjam Melchers van Poppel) from Team Flexpoint, Trixi Worrack (Équipe Nürnberger), World Champion — Marianne Vos (DSB Bank) and Zoulfia Zabirova (Team Bigla). As the riders appeared around the final right-hand corner 400 metres from the finishing line, Cooke wound up the sprint, followed in for the podium placings by Zabirova and Vos. Cooke was clearly the strongest and had time to celebrate in front of the appreciative crowd with a two-armed salute.

Oenone Wood (T-Mobile) had started the day in second place overall. Despite a huge chase, driving the front of the bunch to pull back Thürig’s escape, she ran out of legs and finished without World Cup points in a bunch one minute, 10 seconds behind Cooke. Wood and Zabirova are now equal second, with 50 points each. Trixi Worrack (Équipe Nürnberger), who started the Ronde van Vlaanderen in eighth place in the World Cup series with 18 points finished fourth, adding 30 to her total and raised her overall position to fourth. Nikki Egyed (Australia) picked up ten points from Vlaanderen (finishing in eleventh place) to add to her 35 from the first round and goes into the next round ranked fifth with 45 points.

Nicole Cooke was clearly excited to have won the Ronde van Vlaanderen “I really feel like I’ve won a “˜Classic’ “, she continued, “it’s a great race and the crowds, they were huge! Look at how many were on the finishing straight!” She was appreciative of the team effort required to help her to win “It was great that Karin [Thürig] was there for the finale [after her break] and the whole team put in a terrific effort.”

The World Cup series continues next weekend with the Dutch “Ronde van Drenthe” race — a new race on the calendar.

Rankings

1. GBR19830413 COOKE Nicole (GBr) Raleigh-Lifeforce-Creation 150 points
2. KAZ19731219 ZABIROVA Zoulfia (Kaz) Bigla Cycling Team 50
3. AUS19800924 WOOD Oenone (Aus) T-Mobile 50
4. GER19810928 WORRACK Trixi (Ger) Nuernberger Versicherung 48
5. AUS19820419 EGYED Nikki (Aus) 45
6. NED19870513 VOS Marianne (Ned) DSB Bank 35
7. GER19741028 TEUTENBERG Ina (Ger) T-Mobile 30
8. SUI19720704 THÃœRIG Karin (Sui) Raleigh-Lifeforce-Creation 27
9. GER19810115 BRODTKA Angela (Ger) Team Getraenke-Hoffmann 27
10. SWE19760316 LJUNGSKOG Susanne (Swe) Team Flexpoint 24
11. NZL19790524 KIESANOWSKI Joanne (NZl) Raleigh-Lifeforce-Creation 24
12. SUI19760629 BEUTLER Annette (Sui) Team Flexpoint 22
13. ITA19840410 BACCAILLE Monia (Ita) Saccarelli Emu Sea Marsciano 21
14. GER19740321 SCHLEICHER Regina (Ger) Nuernberger Versicherung 21
15. ITA19870430 BASTIANELLI Marta (Ita) Safi-Pasta Zara Manhattan 18
16. AUS19731117 RICKARDS Emma (Aus) Raleigh-Lifeforce-Creation 16
17. BEL19770214 GOOR Sofie (Bel) Vrienden Van Het Platteland 15
18. AUS19771108 GRAHAM Lorian (Aus) 12
19. USA19660509 MAYOLO PIC Tina (USA) Colavita-Sutter Home-Cooking Light 10
20. AUT19791113 GRAUS Andrea (Aut) Nuernberger Versicherung 9