At last, I find someone who shares this Blog's longstanding outrage at the way the BBC has treated Welsh cyclist Nicole Cooke. Angharad Mair has really lashed out at the BBC in her Wales on Sunday column - but then she has a genuine understanding of sport. Nicole has been the outstanding British sportsperson of 2006. If there was any justice in these things, she would have been declared Sportsperson of the Year. But Nicole is not brash. Nor does she have celebrity status. Nor has she had to cope with deep personal tragedy. She is just a pleasant, well-spoken utterly brilliant Welsh cyclist who would be feted as a world star in every other European country. But the BBC treated her as an also-ran - simply because her 'story' is not 'Good TV'.
Nicole's only challenger should have been Joe Calzaghe who, at least, did come third. His demolition of Jeff Lacey was the best performance by British fighter since Howard Winstone - who I remember driving down to London to see fight Vicente Saldivar soon after passing my driving test over 40 years ago. I don't know much about this Peter Manfredo Jnr that Joe is taking on in the spring - but I hope we don't see any of the complacency he showed in his last fight with the headbutter, Bika. And then it will be on to the retirement pension fight with Bernard Hopkins. This blog wishes Joe well.
Nicole will win the title next year.
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