Cooke will head for Athens full of confidence

Cooke says she will definitely compete in her favoured road and time trial events, and will make a late decision on the 25km points track race.

"The pursuit is a very technical event. It's not just a case of going as fast as you can," explained Cooke.

"Given all the injury problems I've had between November and May, I haven't had enough to spend on the track."

The 21-year-old justified her billing as one of Britain's brightest medal prospects by winning the Giro d'Italia at her first attempt earlier this month.

Doubts had been raised over her fitness after she had key-hole knee surgery in May, but Cooke dispelled those fears with a typically gutsy to ride to win what is considered to be the women's version of the Tour de France.

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Since then she has been continuing her Olympic preparations at the Newport Velodrome, and her performance in training has raised her levels of expectations.

"My training's gone very well," she added. "We've been having some good races and I've been seeing some good improvements there, so I'm happy with how that's gone.

"I'll continue to do the preparation for the points race - I'm not losing anything by doing it because it complements the road racing.

"But I will make a final decision in Athens once I have done the road race and the time trial, depending on how the situation is.

"I can't forecast how it's going to go. Who knows, maybe after having two great results I might want to try to get a third or maybe I'll say no?