Cooke won two stages of the race in the Basque country

Britain's Nicole Cooke was upbeat despite missing out on a podium place in the Emakumeen Bira event in Spain.

Olympic and world road race champion Cooke, 26, won two stages and led the event overall at one point.

But she was unable to control a break containing Mara Abbott, Claudia Hausler and eventual winner Judith Arndt, on Sunday's final stage.

"On the wet roads I was not ready to take any risks in the last downhill and they dropped me," she explained.

Cooke won stage two on Friday, with an uphill surge to the line, and outsprinted Arndt in Saturday afternoon's 79km stage 3b.

"The results show that we are on the right way and all the riders are motivated and getting great results," said the Vision 1 team leader.

Vision 1 finished behind Arndt's Columbia Highroad in the team classification.

Manager Andy Walser said "I am really impressed by the performance of the whole team has done.

"Even our youngest rider Aurore Verhoeven managed to be in some breakaway groups alongside big names in women's cycling so she had a great race.

"Now we see if we can repeat this success in our next races."

Cooke next races in the two-stage Giro Trentino, starting on Friday.

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