Nicole Cooke claimed Great Britain’s first gold medal in Beijing with an impressive victory in the women’s road race, taking Britain’s 200th Olympic gold.
The 25-year-old from Wales came out on top in a sprint finish, coming home in a time of three hours, 32 minutes and 24 seconds.
The 126km race featured two laps of a 23.8km circuit before concluding on the Great Wall of China, and was hampered by bad weather, maybe all that training in British conditions helped her win out!
Cooke had been helped out by Team GB colleagues Emma Pooley and Sharon Laws. Pooley played a vital pace-making role and eventually finished in 23rd while Laws came home 35th having spent a large part of the race at the front of the peloton. A pretty impressive show from the Brit girls.
The dirtgirls 2008 trip is now over, with everyone heading home yesterday. The final few days saw us riding a challenging ridgeline descent (with various spectacular tumbles); pushing our limits on the downhill courses; and lots of giggling at video footage of ourselves riding, falling and getting cross with ourselves. Champery very kindly put on a fete du vin for the final night so we spent the evening trying lots of different local wines before finally stumbling back for dinner.
At the awards (with prizes of twin six tees and sombrio gloves kindly donated by Minx) everyone was a winner. And me more than anyone as the girls gave me a fantastic birthday cake (the final day was also my birthday) which we all shared before heading to Mitchells for drinks.
A great week of riding with a brilliant group of girls, bring on the next dirtgirls trip!
We’ve had three days of riding and everyone’s tired, sore and ready for a well-earned rest day! So far we’ve done forest singletrack to Val d’Illiez, downhill trails in Morgins, Croset and Chatel, and plenty of other great Swiss trails.
Bikes have been battered, and so has one of our girls, forced into rest by ligament damage on her thumb during a fall on the Croset DH course. The rest of us have battled on, and we saw grins aplenty on the Morgins singletrack and DH course today! And even happier faces when we stopped for a glass of wine at the end of the day at the gorgeous sur cou bar, just above Champery, surrounded by stunning mountain views.
I still can’t decide whether to join the spa trip, the via ferrata trip or the riding group tomorrow……
A group of very lucky ladies are heading out for the dirtgirls trip this weekend. The sun’s shining, the trails are in great condition and I;m looking forward to a week of riding my bike every day! But to top it all off, not only did minx offer a discount on pre-trip buys she sent over a parcel bulging with giveaways. If I wasn’t so nice I’d be keeping my mouth shut and keeping it all for me…..
I was a very lucky girl this weekend - a parcel of goodies arrived from Minx. Top of the list were the minx pink hope mono minis which look fantastic on my white heckler, finished off with some super cool oury grips and the charge ladies ladle saddle. One of the best looking girls saddles around, plus comfy and cheap! My bike now looks pretty much perfect 
And it didn’t end there, with my new Loeka pinstrips shorts, Maloja Minas freeride jersey (plus some super comfy Pearl Izumi liners, which luckily for everyone else weren’t on show) I looked pretty good too.
Once I get my mitts on the camera guy took over to Champery for the Swiss Freeride week I’ll get some photos of my bike up!
Girls get to minx stuff’s flying out at the moment.
Guy and I headed over to Alpe d’Huez on Monday afternoon to a full chalet of guests excited for the week’s riding. Tuesday saw us all ride parts pf the qualifier and some of the other great trails around, and on Wednesday the Mega course itself. At 10am on Thursday Petra Wiltshire and I met up with a large group of girls for the girlie Mega pre-ride we arranged. Everyone started up a little nervous on the snow but soon got the hang of it as we tried out different methods of descent together.
The rocky section was up next, with lots of encouragment from each other and discussion of best lines at tricky stuff we all cleared sections we weren’t sure we could and finally made it down to Alpe d’Huez for lunch. Most of us carried on with the second half of the course during the afternoon and there’s no doubt that the group discussion on how to tackle some of the steep rooty switchbacks helped us all clear them better than expected. After the bus back up the day finished with a beer in the sunshine.
Photos will be up on the gallery once we’re back in Morzine next week.
One place has just come available on our August dirtgirls week, due to a broken ankle. If you fancy a week’s riding in the Alps with lots of other girls get in touch soon!
Riding here at this time of year is very different from the summer season when the lifts are open - anyone that’s tried it will know there are some very long uphill slogs! So late yesterday afternoon I set off up the road towards Avoriaz on my pink bike. I’ve never been a massive fan of long climbs but yesterday was great. I found a rhythm and felt good. The views were amazing - the different shades of green in the trees and grass, the craggy mountain tops still covered in snow and the flowers springing up all around. It only got better as I cut off the road onto the path winding through the trees and eventually the long descent back down. The rocky rooty descent put a stress on my arms and hands (much tougher on a hardtail than a heckler!) but a smile on my face and I got back down to Morzine wishing I had time to do it all again.
Bring on the summer…..
It’s great to be back in Morzine and out on the bikes again - even if the climbs seem tougher than I remember from the end of last summer
Yesterday evening I climbed up towards Avoriaz with a friend, but we cut the ride a bit short as a storm came in and got back soaked! Today was a far better sunny ride over in Champery with Petra, who’s running our girls weeks. Starting and ending the ride with coffee and chocolate brownies, we sought out lots of great spots for dirtgirls skills sessions (we’re always after a good excuse to stop for a break!). Petra’s found some great places to practise - lots of short steep rooty chutes of differing difficulties, windy rooty tree lines full of natural obstacles, and some great natural drops, handily positioned in varying heights. With a day or two of clearing and riding to bed it in we can create some prefect practice tracks, and I’m getting very excited about it now.
Going riding on Sunday got me in the mood for thinking about biking again and so inevitably, new riding gear. A quick visit to Minx today and already there are so many things I have to have. The new La Ninas in Earth look great, and my old ones are one of my favourite pairs of riding shorts. Sadly their fantastic quality means that even after two summers of riding and falling they’re in great condition. Can I justify another pair….well they are in a different colour! Tops too, too many to choose from. Last summer’s favourite the minx tech tee is still around so will make it onto the list and maybe a Harlot or Terry tank. So many great clothes, so many great rides to wear them on…..
Girls, if you haven’t been there yet, get onto Minx soon to check out the new range. www.minx-girl.com
