Van der Breggen & Cooke: spring bloomers, Rosa stars

While the Classics reach their climax in the aftermath of Milano-Sanremo, the month of April is also the occasion to celebrate in quick succession the birth and rise of two of women’s cycling’s most prominent figures: Nicole Cooke, who turns 43 on Monday 13, and Anna van der Breggen, who reaches 36 springs on Saturday 18. Both of them got to celebrate in winning fashion at the Ardennes Classics, especially on the slopes up Mur de Huy (7 victories at La Flèche Wallonne Femmes for AvdB, 3 for Cooke).

And both are icons of their sport, who participated in redefining the scope and grandeur of women’s cycling in the 21st century, leaving particularly significant marks in the Giro d’Italia Women.

Cooke, a modern force that shook and ruled the world

As Cooke is the elder, it’s only natural that she was the first to hit Italian roads. She first participated in the Corsa Rosa in 2004, only aged 21, but with a background that already highlighted her special talent: junior world champion titles, elite national titles, a handful of victories in the Classics (Flèche, but also Amstel Gold Race and GP Plouay) and some stages in week-long races, including the Giro della Toscana – Memorial Michela Fanini. Still, her performance in the Giro stunned the world, especially as it marked her return to international racing after eight months off the bike due to a knee injury.

After consistent performances from the start, Cooke surged to victory at Madonna del Ghisallo, on the eve of her definitive crowning in Milano. A Rosa star was born. And she went on to claim over 50 victories on the road, including the Olympic Games road race in Beijing (2008), the rainbow jersey in Varese the same year, and another stage of the Giro Women, in Verona (2011). A modern force in the peloton, Cooke retired in 2013, taking the opportunity to highlight structural problems women’s cycling faced at the time (some of which have been addressed by the recent growth of the sport).

AvdB, an icon shaped in the Giro and Imola

As Cooke took in Verona her penultimate professional victory, Van der Breggen was 21 years old and already participating in her third Giro Women, an event she attended with the Dutch national selection before turning professional the next year. AvdB still had lots of steps to climb to become the best version of herself, one that would become an absolute legend of the Corsa Rosa with four overall triumphs – as many as Annemiek van Vleuten, just one shy of the record set by Fabiana Luperini – in 2015, 2017, 2020 and 2021.

The Oranje icon also took four stage wins, twenty-two Maglia Rosa, and also finished on the podium in 2014 (3rd), 2016 (3rd) and 2019 (2nd). Her winning relationship with Italy also includes a victory at the Strade Bianche (2018), and a rainbow double in Imola (2020), where she won both the road race and the individual time trial. Her story is that of a unique champion. And it goes on, after she returned to competition last year and, among other feats, finished 6th of the Giro Women!