Newsgroup: it.sport.ciclismo
Titolo: Cycling's unsung saviour

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/5253924.stm
At a time when comedian David Walliams is the bookies' favourite to 
become Sports Personality of the Year, you'd think Britain would cherish 
its champions.
Yet the achievements of Welsh cyclist Nicole Cooke, winner of the 
women's Tour de France and current number one in the world road race 
rankings, seem to have gone virtually unnoticed.
Cooke is the first Briton, male or female, to reach the top 20 of the 
world rankings, let alone top them.
The lack of attention is a sore point for the 23-year-old.
"It's quite hard to find female athletes from Britain who are number one 
in their sport," she told BBC Sport.
"So it is a little frustrating not to get more of a mention.
"But I have to leave the coverage of my sport to other people. I'm doing 
all that I can by competing at the highest level."
The financial rewards available to Cooke are also modest.
"No female cyclist earns as much as even an average male cyclist, so 
we're definitely not doing it for the fame and fortune," she says.
Cooke receives about £675 for winning a World Cup race but this has to 
be split between her team-mates.
Most of her income comes from sponsorship and endorsements, which are 
small beer compared to many other sports.
And you're not alone if you've never seen Cooke compete.
Most of her races are shown only on specialist websites, although the 
World Championships in September will be televised on the BBC's 
Grandstand and Eurosport, and the World Cup races in Sweden and Montreal 
are being shown by BBC Wales.
Yet Cooke insists she is in the sport not because of a quest for pounds 
and plaudits, but because of a love of cycling and competing.
It is this passion that compels her to undertake a gruelling training 
programme.
Cooke is based in Switzerland and on a typical training day will cycle 
for four and a half hours in the morning, which takes her about 120km, 
and a further hour and a half in the evening.
Reaching the top of her sport has been a struggle ever since she started 
cycling at the age of 11.
Growing up in south Wales, where even the biggest under-16 race 
attracted only seven or eight riders, she found it difficult to find 
good competition.
So she travelled to Holland every summer from the age of 12 to learn the 
racing skills and tactics that have stood her in good stead during her 
career.
And this season has been the most successful of her career to date. As 
well as winning the women's Tour de France, she also claimed the 
prestigious Thuringen Rundfahrt in Germany and sits atop the rankings.
She is vehemently anti-drugs, refusing to inject even sugars or amino 
acids or to share a room with anyone who does so.
"To me, injecting anything isn't right," she says. "Our bodies aren't 
made to have massive infusions of amino acids or sugars.
"There are riders who would do that. I don't think they're the right 
ethics for sport.
"Once someone's willing to inject something into themselves, what's to 
stop them going them further down the line?"
In contrast with the men's side, she believes women's cycling is clean.
"I don't think there's anything going on that I can see on the women's 
side.
"Because there isn't the money and exposure that the men have, the 
desire or need to take drugs hasn't entered into the minds of many of 
the women cyclists."
-- 
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Il sito dedicato alla giovane ciclista lituana Modesta Vzesniauskaite

 the women cyclists."
Probably when money came into the sport, so did drugs as the theory goes,
but not all that much money has gone into the sport. MB riders like Pia
Sunsteadt switched to MB racing since she not only found herself riding
well, at or near the top, but women MB riders get paid better. The top MB
women can make as much as 150k a year, while the best top road women
probably make much less. Possible one or two top road women might pull 150k
a year, I don't know for sure, but these figures were stated by Alison
Dunlap, a two-time Olympian.
The women don't have the incentive to dope as much as the men. The races are
short, and fewer races overall. Women can recover taking days or even weeks
between races so there is no concept of doping just to survive a season, or
a major stage race. Doping would be one more of a specific edge in a classic
or overall in a stage race. Also, there is no big money in women's sport
which would be a big incentive to cheat. The pay between the Mens Tour
Winner and the Women TDF winner is, well, no comparision at all! If the pay
was equal between the men and women like the Tour De Toona, then that might
change the equation dramatically, but I wouldn't want to see big money wreck
women's cycling.
As noted before, the handful of cases that were very public, have been very
questionable. I read all the news about Nebens case. It appears to be a
complete sham. Her limits were so incredibly low, that experts say that
could only be a natural occurence. With ZS, as I said, that is a pity, and I
don't know the levels, but I will say something in ZS favor.
ZS was riding with all the pros since the late 80's. She would be an
incredibly interesting person to interview! She was there when LZVM went
head to head with Longo in 92, 93. She was there for the worlds when LZ won,
in 1990, and she was there in 95 when Luperini won her first tour. ZS would
indeed have some wonderful and fascinating stories to tell! She certainly
would be an interesting and very, very, knowledgeable person about women's
cycling almost since its inception, at least since the beginning of Longo's
great rule, all the way to the present day. ZS could probably write her own
book!
It's a pity, and I don't even know about the supplements she used or what
level, but clearly this is a great loss to cycling. :-(
B-