Sporting inspiration can be found in different forms. Some competitors read of the triumphs of their peers; others watch video tapes of past glories. Nicole Cooke just opens her front door.

At the start of last year Cooke made the decision to live in Lugano, Switzerland. It is where her team is based, it is central to her job as a road cyclist and it is where her teammates and many of her friends are.

She can leave her home and within seconds be training on the type of tough mountain peaks and difficult terrain that have led to her becoming one of the best in the world and a leading contender to be the 2007 Sunday Times Sportswoman Of The Year.

Mt San Salvatore, Mt Bre and Mt Generoso are just three of the tourist attractions that surround this beautiful region of Switzerland, which is close to the Italian border. “There are hills everywhere you look,” says the 24-year-old. “You could not want for any more in the sense of a training terrain. I am on the outskirts of the town. I can see the mountains, so I know exactly where I will be going that day.”

It has been a season of mixed emotions for the Swansea-born rider, who will be among Britain’s best hopes for success at next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

She was the defending World Cup champion, seeking to become the first woman to win the title three times, only to be relegated to second place after the final race in Germany.

But her year has brought immense glory. She won the opening two World Cup races and was particularly delighted with her victory in the Ronde van Vlaanderen – the Tour of Flanders – in April before retaining her title in the women’s equivalent of the Tour de France, the Grande Boucle, over five days in June.

“This year I achieved things I have not done before. I won some great World Cup races. The Tour of Flanders is seen as the queen of the classics, one of the best one-day races, so to win that was brilliant. It is in the heart of Belgium, is one of the best-supported races out there and has almost a mythical status.”

But her mind is geared towards Beijing even now, just a fortnight after the World Cup series ended. “I have gone through the training plan for next year and the Olympics is the priority,” she says. “I am serious about the Olympics. I am going to be doing World Cup rounds but not doing the series.”

Few British women have come close to making the same impact on the world cycling scene as Cooke, who was the first British woman to lead the international rankings.

Her progression has moved on in impressive style. She won her first senior national title when she was 16 and provided an insight into her desire when, three years later in 2002, she became the Commonwealth Games champion with a brilliant sprint finish in Manchester. At the time she said: “At the start of the year, I set myself some big ambitions. Unless you believe those ambitions, you won’t achieve anything.”

As she carries those thoughts towards Beijing, she knows she is in the right area to put together the best preparation.

“It is good to have the continuity between summer and winter training in the same place, and that is where my home is now. There is countryside everywhere, you are riding in the lanes and it is fantastic,” Cooke says.

“I did not see it as a problem going there. It was a new opportunity, something I wanted to do because it was going to bring a whole new experience with it.”

It was a logical step for a woman whose family home is in Bridgend but who rides with the Swiss-based Raleigh Lifeforce Creation team and spends most of her time competing in Europe.

“It is like saying I am going to play football for AC Milan but stay in Britain,” she says. “There is a strong cycling culture, so it is beneficial because cycling is a continental sport. With my team based over there, it is important in road racing to have a strong team, to make sure that you work well together, so you have to be based in the heart of the sport. Many events take place in Italy, Germany and Holland – it is all down that central part of Europe. Switzerland is centrally located and good from that point of view.

“For the team and the racing, if I was based in Britain and I had to travel to every single race every weekend and then return to Britain afterwards, you would spend more time travelling than on the bike training.”

Her year began with victory in Australia at the opening World Cup race in Geelong, Victoria, in March before her success the next month in Flanders, where the essence of the strong team unit in cycling worked. Her fellow Raleigh rider Karin Thurig, of Switzerland, took control with 4km left before her British colleague joined her and secured victory.

Cooke called the win “an incredible team performance” because Raleigh had the chance to control how the race developed thanks to the number of riders they had in the breaks, the ethics of a squad working well together.

Cooke took the glory, but the team played their part.

That might not have happened had the Welsh star not been at the heart of where she needs to be.

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