Nicole Cooke wins road race

Well done, Oenone !
Cooke wins road race, earns Britain's first medal : "Defending champion Sara Carrigan and teammates Oenone Wood and Kate Bates produced courageous rides in drenching rain"

Nicole Cooke did incredibly well to win. It was a superb race and anyone might have won it....but Nicole could pull it all together at the end after a soaking wet, gruelling run. It was just a privilege to watch all those women go out there and face the tough, wet conditions and just cycle so superbly. Even those who came off their bikes just got back on them and rode on. These women are amazing athletes and such fantastic role models for all of us. They were cool, calm, level headed. They could do tough with grace and beauty because they were all so well trained and poised. It was a great race because you just couldn't know who was going to win. They were all so good and Kate Bates sat up the front there looking so comfortable for quite a long time and then she fell away and eventually left the race. Oenone Wood also held her place well and then seemed to slip back. She came in 29th only 53 seconds behind the gold medal winner, so this is no loser. These women were all so closely matched that on another day someone else would have won it. That Danish girl was pretty impressive. I thought our girls did well. I'd be interested to know why Kate didn't finish the race because we had no time to find that out. Sara came in a minute behind the winner, so that was pretty impressive. Our women's cycling team has taken some real hits and has come out in front with the reformatting , regeneration and recovery. A fantastic effort and next time, who knows who it will be. That's what I like about these games so far...there is a real competition going on and it's great.