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Tough Start to the Year for Nicole Cooke
Story posted March 19; by Larry Hickmott and Nicole Cooke
It isn’t a bed of roses being the Olympic champion if the tales that Nicole Cooke has to tell are anything to go by. Nicole’s start to the year has been blighted by broken contracts and cancelled races but the Welsh champion is as determined to race as ever with the first World Cup only a few weeks away.
“I have just finished training blocks in Italy and Majorca and they went really well” the Olympic and former World Champion told me. “I feel great and I can’t wait for the start of the season. The fire is burning inside!”
“I’ve had a very good build up since getting over the sickness I had at the end of last season. I’ve just finished a training camp in Mallorca with the other GB girls and looking forward to this final step up in training before the races begin. Like I said, I’m very motivated for the new season.”
Nicole meets up with other girls on the GB programme, Sarah Storey, Hannah Mayho, Annie Last, Nicole, Lucy Martin and Lily Matthews.
On the 28th of March, the Great Britain Women’s team will be racing the Trofeo Alfredo Binda, the first round of the Women’s World Road Cup. Those supporting Nicole in the race include Hannah Mayho and Lucy Martin who was 17th in the Women’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (Het Volk).
The Trofeo Alfredo Binda will be followed by three more World Cups in quick succession; Tour of Flanders (April 4), Unive Ronde van Drenthe (April 10) and Flèche Wallonne (April 21).
During her training camp in Majorca where the weather has not been kind to Team GB, Nicole explained “I hope to go into those races ready to win them. That is certainly my ambition. It’s impossible to know now what is going to happen in them but I certainly want to be in a position to take any opportunities that come my way.”
Nicole admits that whilst she is able to prepare for World Cups without racing, it would have been better to have had a few smaller races in the week leading up to the World Cup. What the GB and the other pro teams did not foresee was the cancelation of both their preparation races and so Nicole will now look to getting in some hard training efforts with other riders and/or some motor pacing.
Supporting Nicole in the World Cups will be young British Olympic Academy riders who are into their second year of being based in Belgium with manager Simon Cope. Talking about her young teammates, Nicole says “They are all very motivated to get to the top of their sport so hopefully this training camp will be a step forward for them in reaching that goal.”
Nicole went on to add that when it comes to teamwork on the road, the most important thing is respect between the riders. “Respect has to go both ways” Nicole explained. “If I want the girls to work for me, I have to show them I am ready to race and take on that responsibility. I really do value the work they do in a race and the contribution they make to the team effort is very important to a race’s outcome.”
Also important Nicole says is communication between the riders in the team. This enables her and the manager in the car to make calls on what tactics they use next in a race which is always evolving as the finish draws ever closer. “It’s always best for them to be honest about what they can do so I can plan my race accordingly” Nicole added.
“In road racing, tactics can be as important to the outcome as a rider’s physical ability”.
Helping Nicole carry out the team’s tactics will be a team of young female riders into their second year of racing in Europe. Manager Simon Cope explained the young riders in his team acquitted themselves very well in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and with so many international races under their wheels, they are both physically and skilfully well prepared to help Nicole.
Nicole, now riding in GB kit, trains in the mountains to be ready for the first world cup on March 28.
Broken promises and lessons learnt
Racing however is just one part of the jigsaw in a rider’s life. Racing for GB can be a lot easier than racing for some pro teams who can, in some instances, make life tough for an athlete. Remember the Team Linda McCartney debacle 10 years ago where many a rider hand their fingers burnt? That was not an isolated case and Nicole has had to deal with some tough situations off the bike because of broken promises.
Nicole talks openly about how people go about their business in running teams unchecked and how that can lead to riders not being paid or worse. One example Nicole gave was how she had to take one team to court just to get her prize money from events years in the past. She hopes that having done that and by the team having had to pay her expenses for the court case, teams will think twice before not paying other riders. It is time, Nicole says, for riders to stick up for themselves.
The reason Nicole is racing for Team GB is because her pro team, Team Nuernberger, never got off the ground and it has left her upset and angry. There are a lot of rumours on the ‘net as to what happened and one of those was that Skyter pulled out of negotiations before signing a contract with her team.
So I asked Nicole to explain what she knows now of the situation that befell her with what was supposed to be her new team for 2010. “At the beginning of December, the Nuernberger management informed all the team riders, staff and press that Skyter will not be the new sponsor and that they would search for a replacement sponsor” Nicole explained.
“In the week after, the manager informed the riders via several e-mails about what the latest was with the team and said they would start a case against Skyter and that their lawyer was ready. But then things went quiet and didn’t move forward for weeks.”
“I haven’t had any official details from the management about a new team. I always thought it would be the same team with a new name. But that’s not the way it seems to be anymore. If it is true that Skyter never signed a contract with Alexander Oppelt of Equipe Nuernberger, and he signed contracts with some riders, then this would be the same as going into a shop and ordering a new Aston Martin with some money you may win in the lottery in the future and not disclosing this to the vendor.”
“That’s a very high risk game! I don’t think many people would do that because this falls into the area of gross negligence. In my case, the girls in the team were going to have to pay for a risk the management took. That is very unfair!”
Right: Nicole in 2010 in the colours of her national team.
As some one who follows the fortunes of riders and teams via well known cycling websites and news papers, I see lots of things written that perhaps sound too good to be true. I asked Nicole was it true that there were stories in the press that she tried to help the team with ‘her contacts’ to Sky?
“Yes, that was written to my surprise on December 15 and I read it again on Christmas day as well!”
“I don’t know anyone from Sky though so I could never have made such a contact. I wrote to Alexander Oppelt that this is not true and how I did not like to read things like this in the press. Even my lawyer reminded them to take care and just to publish facts”.
“Obviously, the team management was not too interested in this because in the February issue of “Road Bike” I read it again. So what do I say? Maybe some people think the more something is published means it is true -- I don’t know. You would need to ask Mr Oppelt about his motivation to do things like this.”
So what happened next I asked Nicole?
“After the 11th of December, I had to read news of my team’s future in the press up until the 23rd of December when the team management sent the next update of information to the riders and staff asking everybody if they would be ready to ride for a reduced salary and that Equipe Nuernberger would make a case for all damages against Skyter and represent all the ones who are involved.”
So you agreed to ride for a reduced salary? “That was written in the press” Nicole replied. “But again, that does not mean it is the truth. Firstly, I was never given even a rough figure relating to this reduced salary. That would have been helpful because I can not say yes to something when I don’t even know what the figure is they are talking about!”
“Would you say yes if your boss asked you to do your work for a reduced salary -- one reduced down to zero or what? An offer like this was not serious. So I had to say no. I’m not paid by the German army or by the German police like most of the other girls who have been riding for Oppelt for many years.”
“I cannot ride for free.”
“The second thing that added to the confusion was that Equipe Nuernberger offered to have their lawyer work for the riders against Skyter. It is hard to imagine however that a lawyer who would work for a firm and its employees when the firm cannot pay them both. The final thing is that the riders have a contract with Equipe Nuernberger and not with Skyter, so how can Nuernberger represent them in a case against Skyter? There is nothing the riders could ask for.”
What was the reaction of the team to your decision? “It’s a long story!” was Nicole’s reply.
“On the 30th December, the team riders and staff received an e-mail where it was written who said yes, and who said no, and the management talked about lots of different options of how the situation could move forward to a solution. But nothing was really clear.”
“From this point on, I didn’t hear anything from the management for the next two weeks and still no answers to my questions or any confirmation of the situation. But, to my surprise I was able to read in the press on the 7th of January that I had agreed to ride for some ‘little expenses’ and on the 9th January that I had agreed to ride for a ‘reduced salary’.”
“Immediately I informed the management again that I am not happy to read press releases like this because it simply was not true and I asked all my unanswered questions from December again about the race programme and other information. No answer.”
“Then on the 13th of January, Alexander Oppelt called me and explained on the phone how Skyter were in the wrong and then he made a verbal offer of a severely reduced salary to override my still existing contract to ride for the new ‘Noris Cycling Team’. We did not however talk about the team’s financial resources, the racing calendar or who would be my team mates which are important things to a cyclist”.
“This was the first time I had heard about the new team but at this point I always believed we were talking about Equipe Nuernberger with a new name, where I still had a valid and un-cancelled contract. I asked Oppelt if he could confirm this all in writing because I was a little bit surprised to hear this all at once on the phone.”
“I wondered how he could make a new offer when he still would not confirm if my Equipe Nuernberger contract was still valid, or cancelled. That same evening, it was written in the press that Nuernberger had changed to Noris Cycling and that they had sent me an offer.”
“So I was standing there on the 13th with a signed Equipe Nuernberger contract, no new offer and I didn’t know what was going on. I was still was waiting for news and answers. That was the moment I had to go to a lawyer because I am not expert enough to know how to handle circumstances like this.”
“My lawyer tried to get some information about what was going on, but even he had problems finding out something.”
It was certainly a difficult situation for an athlete such as Nicole to find herself in. The Olympic champion is a rider who has won pretty much every honour she can win in cycling but even with her lawyer fighting her corner, the situation wasn’t getting any clearer as Nicole explained.
“The lawyers had spoken with each other on the phone, then three days later the Team’s lawyer denied everything he had said. So did they talk about the weather, or what? He is a real expert at making excuses to waste as much time as possible and not find a solution”.
“Around this time, I read in the news that ‘Noris Cycling’ was planning it’s season with me! Then on the 19th of January there was another press release that for the first time explained that I, with a couple of other riders, were not in the team. And if that wasn’t enough, in another interview that followed, staff from the team were quoted as saying that Equipe Noris were still in negotiations with me. It was all baffling!”
“What is coming out of Equipe Nuernberg/Noris Cycling does not make me confident that their team will work out for next season.” To back that up, news came in from Nicole as this article was about to be published that Noris Cycling has not able to pay the salaries of some of their riders, salaries of 100 Euros per month for the first two months of the year.
“They talk a lot with the press but to get some info from them personally is almost impossible. The funny thing is that when some people in the media asked me for a statement, even when I sent them my point of view, it was still only the story seen through Mr Oppelt’s eyes.”
“It has been interesting to see which of the media tries to hide the details as much as possible.”
Listening to Nicole, it all sounded like a story I had seen on TV recently about a young British singer who had been promised much in Germany only to see everything fall apart as promises were broken which lead to a life in obscurity when only a short time before, stardom had beckoned.
This however, wasn’t a story about the music industry, it was an example of how tough it can be for cyclists trying to earn a living racing their bikes. When asked would she have ever ridden for this ‘Noris’ team given a sensible offer, Nicole replied “of course. I have an interest to keep a woman’s team alive for the future of our sport.”
“If I had received an acceptable offer from the new Noris team, even after everything that has happened, then I for sure would have thought about it. I would have needed though to see proof of how it was going to be financed.”
“I have the feeling though that somebody is trying to evade their responsibilities at the expense of the riders and the public deserves to know the true story about the way some people in this cycling world work.”
“Nobody knows better than I do that sometimes bad things can happen and throw you backwards. But then I expect people who are involved to try to find the best possible way to sort it out. That didn’t happen here. Mr Oppelt has obviously no interest in things like this.”
“Even when I love cycling like I do, and it means a lot to me, it is also my job where I earn the money to live with. If contracts mean nothing, in the end there is no reason to sign any in the future. So I hope we will soon see a signature that has some worth attached to it so we can find a solution. I hope it does not take another two months to find out how Alexander Oppelt wants to sort it out.”
“I signed a valid two year contract with Equipe Nuernberger even though I have received confirmation from their lawyer that this team, as an active racing team, does not exist anymore. After more searching, we even found out during last season he didn’t pay all his invoices. What that means in German law is a question the lawyers, Mr Oppelt and the BDR have to think about now.”
Time to look forward
This is what Nicole prefers to be doing, winning bike races with the big goal being to win back that rainbow jersey in Melbourne. Photo: CJ Farquharson / PhotoSport
The whole saga is a lesson in how careful athletes have to be but Nicole is doing her best to try and put it behind her and leave it to the lawyers to sort out. The Welsh racer has other things on her mind like getting fit and ready to tackle the races she has coming up in two weeks.
“I need a clear mind for these races” she says. “Thinking about situations I have no control over isn’t going to make me faster.”
The bottom line is that come February, Nicole had to make tough decisions about how she was going to get a ride in the races that motivate her. “To find a team would not have been too difficult with the results I have” she explained. “To find the right one though was going to be difficult”.
“The whole thing has to fit together to be successful. It isn’t all about big names and so on. Which is why it led me to talking to Team GB and riding for the national team. The train heading towards 2012 is picking up some speed now and all is good for the London Olympics. I know all my team mates and the staff so that is a great start. Racing with the Academy riders who are developing into future champions is a challenge I relish and it’s great for me to be able to help them on their way.”
Good luck to Nicole who at the moment is having to rely on the income from private sponsors to pay her way in the world and hopefully, justice will be served and the Olympic champion will find herself in an appropriate pro team where the things most people take for granted, such as pay packet for the graft put in, will be forthcoming.
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