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To read Nicole Cooke's report, click here

That was the reaction by the Great Britain Women's Endurance Team Manager Dave Mellor after Rachel Heal had finished 8th in the second running of the GP Feminas Castilla y Leon World Cup race in Spain on Sunday, the 30th of March. In the final group sprint, a selection of 23 riders were left and in that Rachel was able to sprint her way to a top 10 finish, scoring UCI points for herself and the team although it has to be said, it's the UCI points scored after May 1 that the team are really looking for with selection in mind for the Olympics. These will do for starters though!

The sprint was for 2nd place after Dutch rider Mirjam Melchers got away with about 5km to go and just held on to win by two seconds from Anita Valen with World Cup leader Sara Carrigan 3rd. Behind Rachel were names like World Champion Susanne Ljungskog and the very active Nicole Cooke (Commonwealth Games champion) who the manager also praised highly. Rachel Heal is quoted by the manager saying Nicole was "absolutely awesome chasing Melchers down after being active all day" and in the sprint, Nicole had teammate Rochelle Gilmore who was 6th. Read Nicole's own account here�

On a cold but dry day, 26 teams containing the best women cyclists in the world, bar a few Americans and Canadians, took to the roads in Spain on a flatish course. The manager had inspected the roads the week before and there was a large section, between 4 and 6km unsurfaced, gravel in other words. In the days after this, there was heavy rain in Spain day after day, and the manager was worried that the road would not be done for the race. Come the race though, it was tarmac surfaced although there was a large 4 inch drop where the new tarmac had been laid and also, ditches on both sides of the road. The end result was quite a few crashes over this section.

The select group of riders came about after the race set off at a cracking pace, the riders aware of the narrow roads after the 1km climb where the road twisted and turned and the team felt like many, that there would be more problems on the descent than on the climb. Saying that though, the manager admits that although the climb was hard enough, it was on the main roads afterwards that the field tended to regroup after being stretched on the climb and then crashes on the descent disturbing the group further.

After a few laps, this tended to have a wearing down process and with 3 laps to go, there was a major selection as the field split into three groups with Rachel Heal and Nicole Cooke from the UK in the front group. Using race radio, Rachel was told to just sit in and in the sprint, pick a wheel and just go for it in the sprint. Easy said perhaps, and after problems in recent races where she has lost wheels in the sprint, this was a major test which she passed with honours.

After the race, the manager praised all the riders performances saying that the teamwork which had been the best ever under his leadership in their opening race of the season in Italy had progressed even further in Spain. "Awesome" was the one word he used to sum it up. For Sunday's event, he singled out Emma Davies for further praise. Emma crashed with four laps left to do, sliding off on a corner. Thankfully without any serious injuries and she managed to not only get back on the bike and regain the bunch, she was also found going to the front after that and helping Rachel Heal.

While waiting for Rachel to come to the phone to give us her reaction to the day's performance, I spoke to John Evans, the Womens Endurance team masseur who told me "Rachel is in really good shape, and her legs are in the best condition of her life" when I asked how Rachel was. Those who read Rachel's diary will know she mentioned having a touch of flu and John says she came onto the trip to Spain with a slight disadvantage as she was still suffering from it. "She's quite tough" though John explained saying Rachel shines through every time.

Speaking to Rachel and asking for her reaction, it almost seemed as she hadn't yet absorbed what she had done. Okay, 8th, as she admits, is not winning a World Cup, but it is certainly a great performance and one that continues to show she is progressing at international level. When asked if she was pleased, a slightly reserved "yes" was forthcoming, the sort of answer riders give when they feel they could have done better but when that was put to Rachel, she admitted that she doesn't feel she could have finished any higher."

Talking about how the race went for her, Rachel says "it was not a course I initially thought would be suit me with its very technical descent which is something I normally struggle with, but having got myself to the front quite early on on the first lap, I managed to get down the descent first and that gave me more confidence and the rest of the team, particularly Emma, were doing a fantastic job at keeping me at the front on the flat bits. So I basically got an easy ride on the flat bits each lap because I had a teammate's wheel to sit behind."

As to whether she agreed with her manager that this was her best ever performance, she did but when asked why she didn't seem quite as excited about it like the team management were, she says "at the time when you see you're 8th in a race - sure, it's top 10 which is great but it's not winning and it's not on the podium."

So I asked her about the sprint, an area she is working hard to improve on. Rachel explained "I was feeling reasonably strong and although having messed up a few sprints at the end of the stage race, I seemed to have more confidence and aggression today than I normally have and I think it was the race that had given me more confidence and aggression because I had got to that point of being in a very select group".

As for the managers advice about picking a wheel, I asked her what she decided on approaching the final. "I was in kind of two minds as to whether pick a specific wheel or not and I think if I was even more confident, I would have probably have picked Anita Valen's wheel who came second so it would have been a good wheel to pick but I decided the best thing to do was to keep myself in the top 5 or 10 riders just because for me to try and hold a specific wheel is quite hard, and there is probably quite a high danger of me being knocked off that wheel, so I decided to keep myself as far forward and jumping on wheels as they come past me".

I then asked were the sprints very physical affairs, where there is an amount of pushing and shoving going on unseen by the race commisaires. "oh yeah." Very unlady like I replied! Rachel and the team now have a series of other important races starting in Holland and ending with Amstel Gold and Fleche Wallone, more World Cup events on far hillier courses, and races I am reliably informed a certain Nicole Cooke is looking forward to.

1. Mirjam Melchers  2.53.48 (37.11 km/h) 
2. Anita Valen   @ 2 seconds
3. Sara Carrigan 

UK RIDERS
 8. Rachel Heal  st
14. Nicole Cooke  Ausra Gruodis-Safi st
47. Charlotte Goldsmith @4.29
61. Frances Newstead @st
80. Emma Davies @7.33

Footnote: Penny Edwards -- Many of you who follow the GB team will know one of the riders Penny Edwards fell during a stage race earlier in the week. The latest report is that she has returned home and is to undergo an operation to have the collarbone pinned on Monday. All the best to Penny and get well soon. The team needs you!

� British Cycling 2002/2003