NICOLE LINES UP FOR RAS

Cooke excited by home race return

Cooke is looking to claim her eight British title on Sunday
Nicole Cooke will make a rare appearance on home soil on Wednesday when she competes in the Ras de Cymru.
Cooke, fresh from retaining her Grande Boucle Feminine in France on Sunday, will race in the opening four-mile time trial stage at Caerleon, near Newport.

The 24-year-old will miss the rest of the five-day race as she will be defending her British Road Race title at Beverley, Yorkshire, on Saturday.

"It will be a nice little test after the Grande Boucle," said Cooke.

"It'll give me a chance to open up my legs to make sure everything's firing right before the British Championships.

"It fits in well with my preparations for Saturday and I'm very much looking forward to it."

It was a real highlight and a fantastic experience

Nicole Cooke

Cooke clinched her second successive Grande Boucle Feminine title on Sunday after a gruelling five stages of racing in France.

It proved to be a hugely successful race for British cycling as Emma Pooley finished third and Tanja Slater, who will join Cooke in Wednesday's time trial, clinched a stage victory.

"It was very hard," said Cooke. "We didn't have the best of conditions - there was a lot of wind and rain so the conditions were constantly changing in a lot of the stages.

"And on top of everything nature could throw at us, we had very tough stages. It really was a tough race and we had a time trial thrust in there as well.

Following Wednesday's time trial, the first stage of the 396-mile Lifeforce Ras de Cymru will start at Abergavenny on Thursday.

The sixth and final stage will be a 50-mile circuit on Sunday.