Here’s a quick update from Nicole Cooke’s Vision 1 Team Rider Jackie Garner who’s been answering some questions about her experiences and being on the Vision 1 Team

10 Questions with Jackie Garner

What is your background in Cycling?

I first started cycling a month before my 15th birthday where I started on the track at Newport Velodrome. I then began riding on the road in 2006 and the following year I started racing.

What would you like to achieve in the next 5 years?

I would like to be a successful full time pro rider

What are your strongest and weakest points?

I think my strongest point is being able to position myself well within the bunch and having a good sprint. My weakest point is definitely hills especially long drags!

What would you say is your most prized cycling possession?

My most prized cycling possession is my new Focus bike!

What would you class as your best ride or position to date and why?

I would say my best ride and position was in my first international stage race in China where I came 18th on the last day.

Who is your favourite sports person and why?

My favorite sports person would be Nicole Cooke as she is an amazing cyclist and has achieved so much.

How do you relax after a race?

Usually just lazing around watching TV

You are now riding for Team Vision 1. How does it feel to be riding with the World, Olympic and National Champion?

It feels unreal as I never expected to be riding with someone with so many titles under her belt!

What advice would you give to girls who are just getting involved in cycling?

Join a good club which you enjoy riding with and have fun!

What music do you listen to?

I listen to bit of everything! I usually like the music in the charts.

Jackie Garner & Vision 1 Racing are being sponsored by Focus for all their Bike Frames

Time Trial Frame: Focus Izalco Chrono 2009

Road Bike Frame: Focus Cayo 2009

Turbo Trainers & Rollers:
To help the team train Paligap have sponsored the Vision 1 Racing Team with: CycleOps Turbo Trainers & Rollers.

Components:
For various cycle components Paligap have sponsored the Vision 1 Racing Team with: Ritchey Cycle Components

Sunday 5th July

Time to go to Italy for a 2 week training and to meet the rest of the team. Dani, Matt, Katie and I met at Bristol airport to jump on the plane. We arrived at Milan to meet Andy, our team manager and Nicole. There was us in our shorts and t-shirts to be met by thunder and lightening, with plenty of rain to soak the twisty mountain roads to the training camp house.

Monday
8am start for breakfast and time to get the bikes out ready to start the camp. A nice 2 hour ride to loosen the legs with a Nicole taster of a hill climb to show what we had in store for the next to weeks.

Tuesday
A hard 2 1/2 hour ride today with a 7km climb leading to the World cup finishing circuit where we did 3 hill efforts and looped back around to climb 9km back over the mountain. A toughy!!

Wednesday
Set off at 10am for a long car journey with pit stops before arriving to do a circuit race in the North of Switerland at 6.45pm. This was very fast but good preparation for the coming races.

Thursday
A mixture of a day with an hour on the road bike, an hour on the time trial bike and a further hour on the road bike with Dani with a cafè stop. In the evening I had a massage…well deserved I think!
Also today Debby arrived to join us for the camp.

Friday
An easy 1 1/2 hour ride with a cafè stop.
In the evening we all had a game of cards together, where Vicki taught us a new Auzzi game called 500!

Saturday
A group of us set off around the lake where me a Katie turned off on the way back to do some hill efforts up a 17km climb which Nicole showed us. A hard 4 hour session but worth it for the views over the lake!
In the evening we were all invited to a BBQ… British need to up their standards! It included massive pork chops, steak burgers, sausages, fresh vegetables from the garden, home made stoned baked pizzas topped off with apple and chocolate cake.

Sunday
We left the house to join a local club ride for 3 1/2 hours where we completed a lap of the 09 World Championships course.

Monday
Katie and I had a rest day we went down to the lake for a swim and to make the most of the rays. Really nice weather! Oops we forgot the sun cream!

Tuesday
A 2 hour ride along the lake where Katie and had some more hill efforts.

That’s all for now

Speak soon

Jackie x

Jackie Garner & Vision 1 Racing are being sponsored by Focus for all their Bike Frames

(more…)

One day after Olympic and World Champion Nicole Cooke won the British Road Race title for the 10th time she was busy supporting cyclists who took part in Action Medical Research’s Ride 24, a 24 hour team relay cycle race at Dunsfold Park, Surrey to raise money for the charity that works to find cures and treatments for diseases affecting babies and children.

There were 23 teams in total and one lone rider and they began cycling at 12 pm on Saturday with teams of up to 4 riders trying to cover the greatest distance overall, with each rider completing several laps before handing over to their team mate in rotation over the whole 24 hours.

Nicole said,

“There was a great atmosphere and even after nearly 24 hours of intense competition there was big excitement as the event came to an end each rider who took part showed great spirit and was rightly very proud of taking part. What I liked most was that through having alot of fun and pushing their personal limits, people were also helping to raise money for people in need and we know that with Action Medical Research it will make a difference.”

Sarah Stevenson, community fundraising manager at Action Medical Research, said:

“Ride 24 is a new event for Action Medical Research and I am delighted at how successful it was. Well done to all the teams that took part and we hope that their success will encourage them and others to sign up next year.”

Action Medical Research is the official charity partner of Nicole Cooke’s Team Vision 1, a partnership which aims to use cycling to raise the profile of the charity and it’s fundraising events.

“It is a chance to give something from my luck back and I am really proud to be involved with such a great charity,”

added Nicole.

Nicole visited one of the projects that Action Medical Research funds in Hammersmith Hospital in February this year, and met with doctors working on research projects trying to prevent and cure illnesses in children.

www.vision1cycling.com

Nicole Cooke & Vision 1 Racing are being sponsored by Focus for all their Bike Frames

(more…)

Here’s a quick Blog update from Nicole Cooke’s Vision 1 Team Rider Dani King.

A lot has happened since I last wrote my blog, the 2 most exciting things have been winning the national crit champs and coming 3rd in the under 23 cat of the national women’s road race on the 27th of June in Abergavenny. I’ll tell you a little about my run up to the event.

After I’d finished my A level exams I flew straight to Italy for a 2 day stage race. (Trentino) This was one of the biggest races I’d ever done and so I was both excited and nervous at the same time. The first thing that hit me was the heat.. I saw 27 degrees at 10am when we were out on a spin the morning before the first stage. The first stage was 106k and pretty flat, it came down to a bunch sprint up hill and I came 21st which I was pleased with as I helped the team. The second day was crazy, when I looked at the profile I’d never seen anything like it in my life, up a mountain for 60k back down, then up another to finish. I rode hard until the 2nd GPM to help out a team mate then finished off the main group. Overall iI was really pleased, Nicole won which was great and was looking forward to the national crit champs which were the day after I got home.

My first national jersey. One of the best achievements in my cycling career was winning the national crit champs. The race was good, girls were aggressive and I knew I had to cover moves and wait for the sprint as my legs weren’t fresh after Italy. I attacked once but got chased down so I knew from then I had to sit in and think about my finish. On the last lap everyone was waiting for someone to go, I lead it out with 200m to go to cross the line first. It was a great feeling and a good fathers day present for my Dad.

The week after the crit champs was the national road race champs so I had an easy week leading up to it whilst in Wales. The night before I stayed at the Celtic Manor with the team which was lush.. big double beds… slippers… strawberries the lot. The morning of the race came and I was really nervous but raring to go and get stuck in. The pace was steady at the start of the race but as soon as we hit the climbs it was ‘full on’. Emma Pooley attacked and formed a break with Nicole and Lizzie which then took the speed out of the main peloton. Unfortunately I missed the break with Katie Colclough and Julia Shaw but knew I had to win the bunch sprint to get a medal in the under 23 category. The last km was tight so I made sure I was round the last corner first, then with 200m to go again lead it out and won the bunch sprint. I’m really pleased with the results and my form at the moment and can’t wait to race again in Germany.

Now it’s time for a little break, I’m off to Barcelona for a quiet 5 days without the bike, then back to the UK for the weekend before leaving for Milan, Italy for a 14 day training camp with the rest of my team mates. I can’t wait to see them!

Ciao, Dani x

Dani King & Vision 1 Racing are being sponsored by Focus for all their Bike Frames

(more…)

Vision 1’s Nicole Cooke added the British National road race title to her Olympic and World crown in Abergavenny last weekend.

Nicole, 26, won her 10th British jersey, ninth successively to close in on Beryl Burton’s national title record of 12.

The two-time World Cup winner quickly joined a breakaway pack that included Armitstead, Pooley and Catherine Williamson early on in the 80-mile race around the lanes of Monmouthshire and streets of Abergavenny.

Williamson, though, dropped off and Nicole held off Armitstead and Pooley to clinch her 10th title in 11 years in a dramatic sprint finish after almost three-and-half hours of cycling in South Wales.

A delighted Nicole said,

“The home crowd spurred me on definitely,”

“It is a great to have people cheering and coming down the finishing
straight was incredible as was the applause after I won.

“I couldn’t have dreamed of winning my 10th title in a better place than back home in Wales. It was a beautiful course today and a really good finish. Emma made a hard attack on the first lap and it was good to see what form she had in her legs at that point. I was really happy with the game plan I chose today.”

“All of us had a go at trying to attack in the finale and then it was coming down to a sprint, and I have had some quite good sprint finishes in the last few weeks so I was feeling confident going into it. I just knew if I went at the right time and I didn’t make any mistakes it would be a really good finish.”

“Vision 1 has had a really good few weeks. We have got a really good spirit in Vision 1 and things are building up and we have the momentum going now which is incredible for such a small team in it’s first
year.”

Nicole is now preparing for the 2 week Vision 1 training camp at Lago Maggiore in Italy which starts on July 5th where she will be joined by the rest of her Vision 1 team mates.

www.vision1cycling.com

Nicole Cooke & Vision 1 Racing are being sponsored by Focus for all their Bike Frames

Time Trial Frame: Focus Izalco Chrono 2009

Road Bike Frame: Focus Cayo 2009

Turbo Trainers & Rollers:
To help the team train Paligap have sponsored the Vision 1 Racing Team with: CycleOps Turbo Trainers & Rollers.

Components:
For various cycle components Paligap have sponsored the Vision 1 Racing Team with: Ritchey Cycle Components

Saw this cracking interview with Nicole Cooke’s Vision 1 team rider Dani King via British Cycling

CREATING A KING

Posted June 24 2009
Words and Photography: Luke Webber

Luke Webber talks to Dani King – Vision1 Racing’s youngest signing – and discovers what it takes to be cycling’s latest hot property, along with some less appealing truths…

Bonkers. That seems to be the word of the moment, tune of the moment and the only way to describe Dani King’s route to a place on the world’s premier road development team.

Skipping a math lesson to ride bikes on a school visit from British Cycling’s Talent Team is a little detached from the normal route into cycling, but seemed to work out for a 14-year-old more interested in competitive battles than crunching numbers. One month later Dani was quickly inaugurated into two-wheeled culture and had already kissed the tarmac, dusted off, been tactically outwitted in a circuit race and cried before vowing to become Olympic and World Champion.

Four years on and at just 18 King rides in an envious position with Vision One. As part of the ultimate development team headed by World and Olympic road race champion Nicole Cooke the lifestyle shift to professional athlete is already underway. Bags litter the house as Dani readies for a weekend of racing in Belgium and although tea is on tap, there’s no cake. As I riffled through another pile of dedication food Dani’s scowled response wasn’t what I was after.

“Cake is banned in this house – you won’t find any in the cupboard either. That’s what it takes to be signed by the world’s greatest rider.”

Thwarted, I continue, asking questions about the serious stuff like if college friends would compare her to Victoria Pendleton or Frankie from The Saturdays. It was a comment met with laughter, setting the tone for the evening.

Who needs math when riding a bike?

ROUTE ONE
King’s path into cycling at the highest level can only be described as direct. One missed math lesson resulted in an invite onto the Talent Team and the British Cycling programme of development. Over winter finishing third at the cyclo-cross National Championships and gaining five podium placings at the National Track Championships attracted Iain Dyer’s attention and selection for the track’s Olympic Development sprint squad. Within eighteen months the European Track Championships beckoned, but ninth place wasn’t exactly the success Dani imagined.

(more…)

After her second place in Stage 1 on Thursday Nicole Cooke won the very hard second and final part of the Giro di Trentino, and with that also the overall, and the Points Jersey.

Team Vision 1 showed again an impressive performance and the results from the last 2 weeks show that Nicole Cooke’s project has to be taken seriously. Friday’s 106 km stage began in the harbour of Riva at the Lake of Garda, and the first long uphill lead the peleton up to 1057m to Andalo. Up until this point Christel Ferrier Bruneau kept all the climbing specialists busy by fighting for the Green Mountain’s Jersey stopping other riders attacking. The first serious acceleration was initiated by Judith Arndt with 2km to go before the summit with the result that the bunch was much smaller when the long downhill to Mezzolombardo began.

A break away group formed on the down hill and in the following flat 20 km this 5 woman breakaway with Nicole Cooke, her Team Vision 1 team mate Vicki Whitelaw, Carla Ryan (Cervelo), Svetlana Bubenkova (Fenixs) and Kim Anderson (Columbia) established a lead of 1min 30.

With Vicki Whitelaw doing strong turns on the front together with Nicole and Bubnenkova and keeping the tempo high while Ryan and Anderson just followed the breaks lead grew up to 3min48 at the foot of the final 7km climb to Faedo. Initially Bubnenkova set the tempo up the climb, then with 3km to go Ryan and Cooke took the lead. Entering the final kilometre with a gradient of 14% Ryan attacked, Cooke responded and then with 400m to go put in her bid for victory. Ryan could not stay with Cooke and Nicole crossed the line with 8 seconds advantage to win the Stage and Tour, adding another great win to her palmares.

Vicki, the driving force of the break away said

“The decisive break was created on the descent and it was an opportunity to put in some big time to the other GC contenders, I felt Vision 1 was in a powerful position having Nicole and I in this break and although the pressure was on us to take the responsibility for the work we worked really hard and relished the chance to show what team work could achieve!”

Nicole said “This was a really special day because it was our team work which made this possible, 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 2 seconds advantage over everyone in the break because of the split in the bunch in Stage 1 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.”

Vision 1 Racing are being sponsored by Focus for all their Bike Frames

(more…)

Stage 1 – Giro di Trentino, Italy (2.1)

It was a good day for Vision 1 at the Giro di Trentino with all riders showing strongly at the front and helping control the stage for a sprint finish. In the finale it was a battle between Equipe Nuernberg and Vision 1 who both tried to deliver their leaders in the best possible place for the finish. On the line Former World Champion Regina Schleicher (Nuernberg) took the victory just ahead of World and Olympic Champion Nicole Cooke (Vision 1). Third was Allessandra D’
Ettore.

Friday 19th June will be the decisive stage which climbs from the beginning to over 1,000m before descending back into the Trento valley before the final 7km climb with the last km at 14%.

1. Regina Schleicher (Nuernberg)
2. Nicole Cooke (Vision 1)
3. Allesandra D’Ettore
21. Dani King
22. Vicki Whitelaw
24. Christel Ferrier Brunau
56. Debby van den Berg
68. Aurore Verhoeven

Vision 1 Racing are being sponsored by Focus for all their Bike Frames

(more…)

Here’s a quick update from Nicole Cooke’s Vision 1 Rider Debby Van Der Berg who’s been out racing solid for 4 days on her Focus bike.

After a period of a bit of rest and some training after Tour de L’aude it was now time to race again and well in Spain!! 4 days, 5 stages so quite exciting!

The first day was a short stage from 76km with two category 3 climbs in it. The team did very well here with Nicole finishing second in a photo finish and Christel and Vicky were also in the lead group of 19 girls helping Nicole with a lead out in the final kilometres. Aurore and I were finishing in a second group and with this result we were the best team of the day!!! So a great day to start with!!!

The second day was 92km with a category 2 climb in. Only one categorised climb today but there were a lot of “little” hills today.

And we won today!!!! Everybody was riding really well and at the end Nicole won the sprint!! And with that she won the green jersey and the jersey who everybody wants the yellow one!!! Vicky and Christel were finishing well up there as well, I was just a couple of seconds behind the bunch and Aurore was in a nice group behind that.

Third day was a split day first a short up hill time trial of 2.2km and then in the afternoon a 79km stage with 2 category 3 climbs. We are all not really specialists in those kind of time trials but we did good with Nicole finishing 12, Christel 18, Vicky 40, me 55 and Aurore 65.

Then in the afternoon stage we were showing again how strong we are!! Riding well again and with a great lead out from Christel and Vicky Nicole won again!!! And because it was a really hard up hill finish she took back some seconds and went up in general tio 4th place and took the green jersey again!! With Vicky finishing 10th and Christel in the front as well we had another a great day!

Then the last day everybody was a bit tired but really motivated to get a great result again. This day a long stage of 122.7km with a category 1 climb and two category 2 climbs. It were three very nice hot and sunny days but today no sun shine but showers which made the Spanish roads wet and very slippery. Today it wasn’t an up hill finish but a downhill!!

Again a strong ride from everybody with Nicole finishing 4, Christel 5 and Vicky 9th. Aurore and me just behind the bunch. Finishing with 3 girls in top ten Nicole 4th, Christel 7th and Vicky 10th in general.
This made us second team after Colombia!! So a great result for a hard but really nice race.

I’m already looking forward to the next one!!

Debby x

Debby Van Der Berg & Vision 1 Racing are being sponsored by Focus for all their Bike Frames

(more…)

The last day of the Emakumeen-Bira was won by Judith Arndt, Nicole Cooke was 4th on the stage and defended her 4th place on GC that she gained back yesterday following her stage win which moved her up from 12th overall. On a hard and rainy stage, Vision 1 Riders showed their strength in depth with Christel Ferrier-Bruneau 5th and Vicki Whitelaw 10th. The overall result was 4th for Nicole in the General Classification and Vision 1 was second in the team classification in this high level race in front of a lot of well established teams.

Nicole said

“I crested the final climb with the leaders but on the wet roads I was not ready to take any risks in the last downhill towards the finish and they dropped me there. The results show that we are on the right way and all the riders are motivated and getting great results, having 3 riders in the top 10 overall is fantastic.”

Team Manager Andy Walser said

“I am really impressed by the performance the whole team has done, and I am proud that all our riders stayed in the race to the end and showed great character, even our youngest rider Aurore Verhoeven managed to be in some break away groups during the stages without intimidation alongside big names in women’s cycling so she had a great race like all the others in the team had too. Now we see if we can repeat this success in our next races.”

Other news from Vision 1 Racing is the signing of the 19 year old Welsh talent Jackie Garner who will begin her activities with Vision 1 at our next training camp in July.

Vision 1 Racing are being sponsored by Focus for all their Bike Frames

(more…)