The Geraint Thomas National Velodrome Of Wales Responds

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well here's a surprise. You may be remember a few posts back I chatted about the renaming of the National Velodrome Of Wales after the winner of the Tour De France Geraint Thomas. I said that it should be renamed the Cooke-Thomas Velodrome in honour of the other successful Welsh cyclist Nicole Cooke.

So amazingly it's drawn a response from the Velodrome on Twitter.

They tweeted as  follows: Like all cycling fans in Wales, we are HUGE fans of Nicole Cooke (we have her bike hung on the wall). We took the decision to rename the Velodrome after Geraint due to his close links with our venue and track as well as the road. He trained at our venue regularly before winning Olympic Gold medals and titles on the track. We would definitely support the renaming of a facility or a circuit after Nicole in recognition of her phenomenal success on the road, but that decision isn't ours to make.

Thing is......

They made the decision to change the name following the Tour De France victory. But what if Geraint Thomas hadn't won? His use of the Velodrome wouldn't have mattered. There would have been no renaming and there would have also been no issues regarding Nicole Cooke being Wales ' successful cyclist having been individual Olympic and World Champion.

And it is after all Wales' national velodrome.

Now of course both are equal in their success. Which is why it's important the sport remembers Ms Cooke, who after all reached the pinnacle of her profession first.

Until the next time