13/04/03 Victory! An impressive performance by Nicole to hold off a gallopping bunch on the final climb for her first win of the year, and her first success in the World Cup.She's also the first ever British winner of a World Cup.

Round four of the competition got underway in pleasant sunshine at 11 o'clock CET with 114.8 kilometres and 9 'bergs' ahead of the field.

The start of the race was fairly quiet with only a few attempts to breakaway and the bunch staying together.

In fact the decisive part of the race didn't come until the 8th of those climbs with only just over 10 kilometres to go.

The climb of the Keutenberg might well have been a decisive moment anyway, but on the very fast downhill aproach to the narrow entrance a car pulled out of a driveway into the middle of the peloton.

The Keutenberg itself had been closed to spectators and Nicole found herself someway down they field as Australian Oenone Wood used it as a platform to jump away.

Nicole worked her way to the front on the climb as several riders tried to slip the field and chase the Australian, but none was succesful until Dori Ruano launched an attack over the top with Nicole on her wheel.

Team mates together last year the pair soon closed down the 15" gap to Wood who's Australian team were blocking behind, along with Nicole's Ausra Gruodis team mates and those from Ruanos Prato Marathon Bike squad.

The peloton though was just 10" behind when the chasing pair caught the leader with 4km to go.

The trio maintained their slender advantage to the bottom of the final climb of the Cauberg and with 450 metres to go Nicole jumped away from her two companions who were then swept up whilst Nicole stayed 30 metres clear to cross the line and celebrate with trademark passion!

Australia's Olivia Gollan took the bunch sprint for second just ahead of Edita Pucinskaite.

Having picked up 75 points for victory Nicole will now go into Wednesday's fifth round of the the World Cup in Belgium, La Flèche Wallonne, in the top five overall although she still insists that the World Cup itself isn't one of her objectives.

"Delighted! Absolutely over the moon."

"I'd known for a couple of weeks that I had the form to win a race and it's been frustrating not getting the win, so this was fantastic. I've been the strongest rider and now I've got the reward."

"I was a bit disappointed before the race that the team decided that we would ride to protect Rochelle's standing in the World Cup overall and I was left to do it all by myself. But I did it and once I got away they blocked for me so everyone's happy now"

"I couldn't beleive it when the car pulled out on us as we were really flying. That really caused a fright and I was well back from the front after pulling up for it. I must have been about 30th when I got to the narrow sharp left turn onto the Keutenberg"

"Earlier on the first climb of the Cauberg at about 60k my legs didn't feel that great, but I had no problem getting to the front on that second last climb. Oenone Wood who beat me last week had alredy gone by then and Brändli, Arndt, Zabrirova, Bessette all tried to go to."

"It was me and Dori who made the chase though. We rode together at Deia-Pragma Colnago and so we knew what we could do.Neither of us was a threat to the World Cup overall either which will have helped."

"When we got to the final climb I could see the bunch coming up fast so I decided I had to go. So I jumped the other two and got the gap.It wasn't far to the finish and I could hear all the crowd shouting so I just gave it all I had got"

"With 250 metres to go I knew I'd won which is always nice because you can enjoy the last few metres."

"To win a World Cup race is incredible, to ride away from all the best riders in the World"

"For me this is a very close second to winning the Commonwealth Games, though for my team I think they'll see this as the best win of my career"

"It's a fantastic feeling being on the podium, unfortunately as I was waving to the crowd I stepped backwards and fell down a small step - that was so embarrasing!"

"The World Cup overall isn't an objective for me, but obviously I wll be trying to win again in Belgium on Wednesday. Clearly though I'm going to be marked now so I'll have to be clever and race efficiently"