National Champs RR not "fair"...

pedro118118
pedro118118 Posts: 1,102
edited July 2010 in Pro race
According to this piece on the BBC website, Nicole Cooke is complaining that the tactics employed by Emma Pooley were "unfair"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/8772811.stm

Seems 9 years of monopolising the jersey isn't enough?
I also seem to recall Nicole didn't complain when Pooley and Laws were at her dispsal in Beijing and Medrisio.
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Comments

  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,738
    Teaming up against the favourite?

    In cycling?

    Never...
    _
  • calvjones
    calvjones Posts: 3,850
    Not doing herself any favours really is she? The pertinent question is why she isn't riding for Cervelo.
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  • pedro118118
    pedro118118 Posts: 1,102
    Seems like the very definition of sour grapes to me.
    Sure, she got worked over, but that's bike racing.
    She's clearly irked cos she she wasn't the one doing the working over for a change!
  • nickwill
    nickwill Posts: 2,735
    The riders were given a lecture at the start, and told that this was an individual race and that team riding would not be tolerated!
    If this was really meant then action would have been taken!
    http://lakescyclist.wordpress.com/
  • will3
    will3 Posts: 2,173
    Emma's doing rather well this year isn't she?
  • Yellow Peril
    Yellow Peril Posts: 4,466
    +1 to all of the above.

    It's very disappointing to see Cooke react in this way. She knows the score and has always been very canny in breaks getting other riders to work hard for the common good and then use her superior talent to say so long and thanks for all the fish.

    I think it is poor show to rain on Pooley's parade in this manner. Pooley worked her (virtual) nuts off for Cooke in Beijing. No wonder Cooke finds herself in a team of one.

    Also I don't recall Ryan Giggs ever bitching about not being Brazilian.
    @JaunePeril

    Winner of the Bike Radar Pro Race Wiggins Hour Prediction Competition
  • ednwireland
    ednwireland Posts: 85
    Olympic road race gold medallist Cooke races in the Great Britain vest as she is not currently part of a professional team, following the collapse in 2009 of her own Vision One Racing outfit.

    says it all really (best cyclist of her generation cant get on a pro team ??????
  • AndyRubio
    AndyRubio Posts: 880
    Why doesn't go to a pro team and say "Please can I join your team?" Surely there are plenty that woul;d love to have her as their leader,what with being Olympic champ, ex worl champ etc. Maybe she's not cut out to be a team member?
    My hour on the plinth
  • Gingerflash
    Gingerflash Posts: 239
    "No wonder Cooke finds herself in a team of one. "

    It does seem, from every interview with her I've read, that she's always complaining about something or someone, involved in acrimony with former team-mates, managers, sponsors etc.

    She's obviously massively talented, but seems to have made herself rather unattractive to potential sponsors.
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    Nickwill wrote:
    The riders were given a lecture at the start, and told that this was an individual race and that team riding would not be tolerated!
    If this was really meant then action would have been taken!

    So why allow them to race in trade team kit? And how is anyone supposed to enforce this rule? Who decides what "team riding" is? The only way to stop team tactics is to... er... hold an individual time trial instead.
  • blazing_saddles
    blazing_saddles Posts: 21,816
    Gingerflash wrote:
    "No wonder Cooke finds herself in a team of one. "
    She's obviously massively talented, but seems to have made herself rather unattractive to potential sponsors.

    Funny how it doesn't seem to work that way for Mr Cavendish.
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • eh
    eh Posts: 4,854
    She has always been an individual and previously that worked for her, but maybe now she has some world class competition in the UK, then things are different.

    She may not officially be on a team but she has ridden big races this year, so must have guested for teams, not sure who though.
  • disquieting_museeuws
    disquieting_museeuws Posts: 601
    pedro118118 wrote:
    Seems like the very definition of sour grapes to me.

    'Sour grapes' would be saying afterwards that the race wasn't worth winning. Aesop tells us that the Fox who failed to get the juiciest grapes because they were too high for him reconciled this fact by telling himself that 'those grapes were sour anyway'.

    I agree though, she should stick to time trialling if she wants to be treated 'fairly'. There would actually be something wrong if the other girls (team-mates or not) didn't gang up on her after she won it for 9 years :) .
  • inkyfingers
    inkyfingers Posts: 4,400
    Dissapointing to see such an experienced pro as Nicole saying this. Can anyone really argue that Emma Pooley has not been the best British female road cyclist this year?

    Interesting about her not being able to get a sponsor when Cervelo have snapped up her three breakaway colleagues and at certainly Armitstead and Pooley have had some great results this year (Laws may have done too but i'm just not that up on the womens sport).
    "I have a lovely photo of a Camargue horse but will not post it now" (Frenchfighter - July 2013)
  • eh
    eh Posts: 4,854
    Actually I was wrong she's just been riding for the GB team all season, which begs the question why didn't she have more GB riders up there to help her?
  • pedro118118
    pedro118118 Posts: 1,102
    I think the best British riders are all on the Cervelo Test Team!
    Nicole aside, the GB riders are relatively young/inexperienced and not really capable of supporting Cooke on such a tough course against such tough opposition.
    Still begs the question - why can't she get a ride on a decent trade team?
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    Cooke is undeniably an exceptionally gifted rider. Her astonishing palmares stretches over a 10 year period.

    As posted on the other thread, the race was only 48km long.

    Agree with the others about her comments though.

    You know she won the Nationals first when she was 16 :shock:
    Contador is the Greatest
  • pedro118118
    pedro118118 Posts: 1,102
    Goes without saying, she is a great talent and has the drive and determination to match. Which makes her currently predicament even more puzzling?!
  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    From the coverage I saw - Pooley looked stronger than her anyway.

    I get the impression that Cooke is somehow awkward - otherwise she would be riding for a big team.

    Great rider though - you cant take that away from her.

    Oh if you look up her website - she really is peed off still. (or maybe thats her dad doing it ?)

    27th June '10 The British National Road Race is the one race each year competed for by
    individuals for an individual title. There is no team event. UCI Rules are quite clear and require no collusion in the competition. I rode alone, as every year in the last eleven I have done so.
  • gsk82
    gsk82 Posts: 3,470
    eh wrote:
    Actually I was wrong she's just been riding for the GB team all season, which begs the question why didn't she have more GB riders up there to help her?

    they were all wiped out by a car in beligum a few weeks back

    http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/454144/five-british-riders-hit-by-car-in-belgium.html
    "Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago
  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    Not that Nicole would allow them to ride for her of course......

    (no idea how the last 8 nationals worked out - did she win them alone ?)
  • Simon Notley
    Simon Notley Posts: 1,263
    Does this no teamwork rule apply to the mens race too? The one that was won by a breakaway of three riders from the same team? I've never seen that happen in a race where teamwork is allowed!
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,738
    Simon Notley wrote:
    Does this no teamwork rule apply to the mens race too? The one that was won by a breakaway of three riders from the same team? I've never seen that happen in a race where teamwork is allowed!

    You didn't watch the '96 Paris Roubaix then?
    _
  • ProBiker
    ProBiker Posts: 74
    edited June 2010
    cougie wrote:
    From the coverage I saw - Pooley looked stronger than her anyway.

    I get the impression that Cooke is somehow awkward - otherwise she would be riding for a big team.

    Great rider though - you cant take that away from her.

    Oh if you look up her website - she really is peed off still.

    Shocking collusion evidence......

    http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard- ... limbing.do

    "I have no idea how that's going to unfold but a Cervelo 1-2-3 with me at the front would be nice. The main thing is that we work together to beat Nicole Cooke, who's the big threat...."


    (Well spotted cougie)
  • ProBiker
    ProBiker Posts: 74
    "UCI Rules are quite clear and require no collusion in the competition."
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,157
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Simon Notley wrote:
    Does this no teamwork rule apply to the mens race too? The one that was won by a breakaway of three riders from the same team? I've never seen that happen in a race where teamwork is allowed!

    You didn't watch the '96 Paris Roubaix then?

    Or the 2000 Olympics, when they weren't all officially on the same team, but really were.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • greasedscotsman
    greasedscotsman Posts: 6,962
    RichN95 wrote:
    Or the 2000 Olympics, when they weren't all officially on the same team, but really were.

    Apart from Ullrich and Kloden who were riding for Germany :D

    Maybe Charly Wegelius and Tom Southam could explain RR tactics to Nicole?
  • calvjones
    calvjones Posts: 3,850
    ProBiker wrote:
    "UCI Rules are quite clear and require no collusion in the competition."

    Even that sentence isn't clear! Does it mean you don't have to collude?
    ___________________

    Strava is not Zen.
  • calvjones
    calvjones Posts: 3,850
    greasedscotsman wrote:
    RichN95 wrote:
    Or the 2000 Olympics, when they weren't all officially on the same team, but really were.

    Apart from Ullrich and Kloden who were riding for Germany :D

    Maybe Charly Wegelius and Tom Southam could explain RR tactics to Nicole?

    Or Massa and Schumacher
    ___________________

    Strava is not Zen.
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    I don't think it's a matter of Nicole Cooke not being able to get a ride with a Pro Team - I think it's partly due to her trying to form her own team and then having that collapse around her. I suspect she doesn't want to simply join one of the big existing teams for whatever reason.

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