Cooke withdraws from women's world championship road race

Nicole Cooke (Great Britain), World and Olympic road race champion, sits on the front of the bunch.

Nicole Cooke (Great Britain), World and Olympic road race champion, sits on the front of the bunch. (Image credit: CJ Farquharson)

Nicole Cooke (Great Britain) lined up for the defense of her world road title in Mendrisio with hope outweighing expectation. After what she admitted was a "difficult build-up", owing in part to a virus in July, the British rider was a shadow of the rider who completed the unique double of Olympic and world title just 12 months ago.

Richard Moore is a freelance journalist and author. His first book, In Search of Robert Millar (HarperSport), won Best Biography at the 2008 British Sports Book Awards. His second book, Heroes, Villains & Velodromes (HarperSport), was long-listed for the 2008 William Hill Sports Book of the Year. He writes on sport, specialising in cycling, and is a regular contributor to Cyclingnews, the Guardian, skyports.com, the Scotsman and Procycling magazine.

He is also a former racing cyclist who represented Scotland at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and Great Britain at the 1998 Tour de Langkawi

His next book, Slaying the Badger: LeMond, Hinault and the Greatest Ever Tour de France, will be published by Yellow Jersey in May 2011.

Another book, Sky’s the Limit: British Cycling’s Quest to Conquer the Tour de France, will also be published by HarperSport in June 2011.