Kelly Cycle Coaching para cycling athlete, Carol Cooke has had a big few months.  She has won a world cup time trial in Spain, enjoyed some road and time trial success in France in the week preceding the world cup AND has been named in the Australian Team to compete in the Paralympics in London in September.

Welcome back to Australia Carol.  How was your recent trip to Europe?  What events did you compete in and where did you compete?  Can you describe the racing and what you gained from competing in these events?

Segovia World Cup Road Race start location

Carol with her flowers

I was competing in France and Spain.  The France event (in the Pyrenees) was a 3 day tour event, I guess you could say my mini Tour de France!  Day 1 was a Criterium, Day 2 a Time Trial and Day 3 a Road Race.  We were staying in the Pays Basque area which is the South West corner of France.  We had been told by the Australian Head Coach that we were here to “Race without Consequence”, in other words we were here to gain experience and not worry about winning at all costs.  He wanted us to not get hurt or damage bikes, but also to do the best we could.

The Criterium was a fairly long course 4.9km and in the Trike category we had 7 laps to do.  This is longer than most of our Road Races, so I went into it thinking of it being a Road Race.  The Canadian girl that beat me last year at World’s was here and I was a bit nervous as I had seen how well she had been doing.  But we worked together really well throughout the race.  Unfortunately we have to race the guys and there was a very dangerous rider from France, who refused to take a turn at the front, just kept on our wheels and then tried to bump me off the wheel of the Canadian.  So I backed off.  I did also make a couple of mistakes on corners and ended up 2^nd to the Canadian rider.

Day 2 was the Time Trial. It was a short course but extremely technical with 9 corners, two speed humps and a downhill with a 90 degree corner to an uphill.  After the first lap I was told I was 10 seconds down to the Canadian, but when I finished I was 16 seconds up on her.  My first win against the defending World Champion!

The 3^rd day was the Road Race and it was 3 laps with one very long uphill section.  I got dropped on the 2^nd lap on the hill but was able to catch up on the 3^rd lap.  The one thing I learnt during this race is to always know the course you are racing on!  At least know where the finish line is.  After the 3^rd lap there was a large blue arch which we had to turn left under and continue about 1km up to the finishing arch.  Unfortunately for the Canadian she thought the blue arch was the finish line and when we crossed together she let out a big sigh and stopped pedalling.  I saw this and hammered towards the finish line.  Thanks to Helen for all those time trial watt bike efforts!  I was able to finish ahead of her and 2^nd overall out of all trike riders (men included).

We then headed to Segovia, Spain which is about 50km north of Madrid, for the 2^nd World Cup.

The first event I had was the Time Trial and it was to be the same distance as the Paralympic TT.  The good thing here was that some of the best male trick riders in the world would be here.  As I have to race the guys in London it was going to be a good test of where I was in my preparation.  I didn’t race until 7:13pm which was probably a good thing as it was over 35 degrees that afternoon.  It had cooled down a little bit but the wind had picked up.  It was an extremely flat course and as I headed out I had to deal with a cross wind which became a very big headwind.  I went off 1 min before the Canadian so when I had finished I had no idea if she had caught me or not.  As it turned out I had gained on her and had beat her by 1:20 min.  The best thing is that in raw time I was 3^rd overall (including the men) and when the Australian Head Coach applied the factoring that will be used in London I had won by 14 seconds.  This was a huge confidence booster.

Two days later was time for the Road Race.  The scenery was spectacular in that we started and finished at a real Castle!  The only hard part about the course was the finish of every lap, up a 7% hill of cobblestones!  The race started out fast and furious and I was able to stay with the men for the entire first lap, but the hill and the heat got to me in the end as it was 37 degrees.  I ended up 2^nd to my Canadian competitor.  However in the 5 races I had against her over the two weeks I had won 3 of them.  I must say that all this racing, I learnt a lot about tactics.  As I haven’t done a lot of racing in Australia it was good to have the competition and work on those tactics. I had done really well over the two weeks and it certainly boosted my confidence in the lead up to London.

And now for some really exciting news.  Congratulations on being named on the Paralympic team to represent Australia in the upcoming London Paralympics.  Can you describe to us what it felt like to be named in the team?  Can you give us some background as to how many years this dream has been in the making.

Thanks so much, I am very excited about being named on the Australian Team for the London Paralympics!  This has been a dream for a long time, longer than most of the cyclists you coach have been alive!  I guess when I was 10 years old and had started swimming I decided I wanted to go to the Olympics.  By the time I was in my mid-teens my goal was the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.  Unfortunately for all athletes in North America we boycotted those Olympics, so I thought my dream had died.  In 2005 while swimming as a disabled swimmer I was asked by the Aus Paralympic Committee to attend  a talent search day, which I did.  I was then asked to take up rowing as it was a new sport in Beijing at the Paralympics.  I made the crew in 2008 and we had to qualify the boat but unfortunately at the World cup in Munich that year we missed qualifying by 0.8 seconds.  Once again my dream was shattered.  But never say never!  After 3 years of continuing to row I was advised that they weren’t interested in our category, so I switched to cycling!  So I like to say that it has taken 40 years, 2 countries and 3 sports but my dream is about to come true.

And the upcoming London events?  What event are you specialising in?  Who are your main competitors?  Is it true you have to race against the men, fighting for one set of medals?  How do they even out the physical strength differences between men and women?

For London I will be specialising in the Time Trial.  All trike riders have to race together for one set of medals in both the TT and the Road Race.  That is 2 categories of trikes, T1 and T2 (T1 athletes are more disabled than T2 athletes), and men and women.  The TT will be factored, in other words they will apply a handicap to all categories except the T2 men.  The T2 men will be at 100%, T2 Women (me) will be judged at 86.66% of the men, T1 men will be at 83.41% and T1 women will be at 72.28%.  So the closer I can get to the raw time of the T2 men the better.

Unfortunately the Road Race is not factored so it will be extremely hard for a woman to medal in this race as the men are that much stronger.

My main competitors are the Canadian Woman Marie-Eve Croteau, the reigning World Champion in TT Hans-Peter Durst from Germany and the past reigning World Champion David Stone from Great Britain.  There are also a couple of other really strong competitors, Steven Peace from USA,  Giorgio Farroni  from Italy and a new young gun from Columbia.

So when do you head overseas to do your final preparation?  What dates are your events?

I head overseas around the 13^th of September.  Myself , 2 hand cyclists, a coach, masseuse and mechanic are all heading to France to train.  The rest of the Australian team will be in Wales training as they will all be riding the track the first week of the Paralympics.  Once you enter the village there is nowhere to train due to the high security.  So we will be going to the same area we were in a couple weeks ago, in France.  I will then be heading into the village on the 2^nd of September as the course we are racing on “Brands Hatch” will be open for training on the 3^rd and 4^th.  I race the TT on the 5^th at 2:30 pm and then the Road Race on the 8^th at 10:30 am.  We are hopeful that the races or at least the results will be broadcast on the ABC.

It is a very exciting time in my life to think that my dream is finally coming true!  Thank you to everyone for all your supportive messages, you have no idea how much they have all been appreciated.