There’s no better exercise in team bonding than winning a gold medal in the Olympic Games, and as an ecstatic Nicole Cooke ran through the finish line melee to hug the pint-sized Emma Pooley and the crash-scarred Sharon Laws, her joy was unbridled. "Team Cooke," the 25-year-old from Glamorgan called her support squad and that included everyone from her two team-mates, to father Tony and mother Denise, and Steve Peters, Team GB’s psychiatric coach.

Cooke has coveted Olympic gold since she was a child in South Wales. She has won nearly every other title in the sport, but her single-mindedness has earned her a reputation for being a lone wolf, and a "difficult" talent. But all of that was forgotten in the shadow of the Great Wall of China, as team togetherness finally brought her the success she has long craved.

Cooke’s gold was founded on the kind of self-sacrifice from her team-mates that makes all the difference in long-distance road racing, with Pooley and Laws forgoing their own chances to pave the way for the Welshwoman’s devastating finishing speed. Without it, Cooke, as one of the favourites, would have been marked out of contention on the final lap, her every move chased down by her rivals.

“There’s so many people who have helped me,” Cooke said. “It’s been a very long journey to get here, so I really hope everyone can share in it and that they have the same feelings that I do.”

Multimedia

• Simon Barnes in Beijing

• Bring back the tug-of-war

• Top 100 Olympic athletes of all time

Olympics updates direct to your mobile

Put the Beijing Games in your pocket

Phelps wins first gold with world record

American swimmer sets world record in winning the 400m individual medley and the first of a projected eight gold medals

• Perfect stage for Michael Phelps, Mr Perfection

• Tom Daley heads into the deep

• Race against the clock

Related Links

• Nicole Cooke factfile

• Cooke sets timing to perfection

• Analysis: Jeremy Whittle

Multimedia

• Pictures: Nicole Cooke wins gold

• BEIJING OLYMPICS IN PICTURES

In the past, in both the Olympic Games and the World Championships, Cooke has remained an isolated figure, bemoaning her lack of team support. Today in the pouring rain, she had it in spades as first Laws and then Pooley, both themselves capable of medal-winning performances, rode as decoys.

Pooley’s final lap performance, in particular, when she first chased down breakaway rider Alexandra Burchenkova of Russia and then attacked herself, forcing Cooke’s rivals to exhaust themselves in pursuit, was a virtuoso effort.

Sticking to the game plan left Cooke free to use her carefully guarded strength when it counted, in the final few kilometres of the race. Finally clear of the field in a five-rider breakaway, she was so assured that she even dropped behind her four rivals in the final bends, to avoid her bike sliding under her on the slick roads. In the final gruelling uphill sprint to the line, she drew level with and then pulled beyond the leading quartet, crossing the line with an exultant scream as she realised her childhood dream.

On the winner's podium, clutching her gold medal, the 25 year old stood beaming in the rain. Back home in Wick in Glamorgan, her father and coach Tony, watched on TV, with mother Denise. "It sounded like half the village was in there with them," she said afterwards. It has taken a long time, but the Welsh rider's long-standing talent will now get the recognition it has long deserved, thanks to her efforts and those of Team Cooke.