Cooke wins Giro del Trentino

Nicole Cooke (Vision 1 Racing) showed just why she is wearing the world champion's rainbow jersey with a dominant ride on the second day of the Giro del Trentino in Italy, that gave her the stage victory and overall win.

The 106km stage from Riva del Garda a Faedo included four major climbs but Cooke handled them with ease.

After an early move by Karin Thurig (Bigla Cycling Team) was brought back, Cooke attacked with team mate Vicky Whitelaw, Kimberly Anderson (Team Columbia), Carla Ryan (Cervelo Test Team) and Svetlana Bubnenkova (Fenixs Edilsavino). They opened a gap of a minute and were never seen again despite a strong chase behind.

Cooke then dropped her rivals one by one on the climb to the finish. Carla Ryan was the last to blow, three hundred metres from the finish, allowing Cooke to win alone.

She also took the overall lead from Ryan and Bubnenkova, pulling the leader's jersey over her rainbow jersey. Ryan is at 16 seconds, with Bubnenkova at 20 seconds.

"This was a really special day because it was our team work which made this possible," Cooke said after the win.

"Vicki sacrificed herself to give me the chance to go for the victory and worked incredibly in the 20km after the descent before the final climb started. I knew I had two seconds advantage over everyone in the break because of the split in the bunch in stage one so the minimum I had to do was cross the line with the others, but this was a great way to win and show how well Team Vision 1 is doing."

RELATED LINKS

Pooley wins first stage of Grande Boucle