Introduction
Baden Cooke (born 12 October 1978) is an Australian retired professional racing cyclist, who competed professionally between 2000 and 2013.
Born in Benalla, Victoria, Cooke began competitive cycling at 11. He completed secondary school at Galen College in Wangaratta, Victoria, and was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.
His professional career began with the Mercury team in 2000, though he found racing in Europe to be more challenging than initially expected. Nevertheless, he adapted. He was more successful during that debut season in Australia and America, where he won stages of the Herald Sun Tour and the Sea Otter Classic, respectively. Having moved to the French team Française des Jeux in 2002, Cooke competed in the Commonwealth Games that year, finishing third behind fellow Australians Stuart O'Grady and Cadel Evans. He also participated in the Tour de France in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2012. In 2003 he won the Green jersey which is the Points classification in the Tour de France by two points in a tight finish on Stage 20 on the Champs-Élysées with fellow Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen second and O'Grady seventh in the final points classification. In 2004 Cooke came 12th in the points classification.
Cooke represented Australia in the road race at the 2004 Summer Olympics along with McEwen, Michael Rogers, O'Grady and Matt White.
Cooke raced 2006 and 2007 for Unibet.com. He joined Barloworld for 2008 but in 2009 moved to Dutch cycling team Vacansoleil. Cooke announced on his website that he will ride for Team Saxo Bank in 2010 – he continued with that team in 2011, before moving to the new GreenEDGE team for the 2012 season. After the 2013 season, Cooke retired.
After retiring, Cooke announced that he was moving into rider management. In January 2014 he became the agent of former team-mate and winner of the 2013 Vuelta a España Chris Horner. He subsequently also became agent for Michael Matthews, Gert Steegmans and Janez Brajkovič.
He recently purchased a stake in Factor bikes and Black Inc wheels.
Career highlights
Major results
- 2005
- Herald Sun Tour
- 1st Stages 4 & 5
- 1st Stage 1 Tour of Poland
- 5th Dwars door Vlaanderen
- 6th Gent–Wevelgem
- 2006
- 1st Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise
- 1st Halle–Ingooigem
- 1st Stage 1 Course de la Paix
- 1st Stage 5 Tour de Wallonie
- 5th Overall Tour of Denmark
- 6th Paris–Tours
- 10th E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
- 2007
- 1st Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen
- 1st Stage 3 Tour Down Under
- 1st Stage 2 Étoile de Bessèges
- 4th Paris–Brussels
- 6th Omloop Het Volk
- 8th Gent–Wevelgem
- 2008
- 1st Stage 2 Clásica Internacional de Alcobendas y Villalba
- 1st Stage 1 Geelong Bay Classic Series
- 1st Stage 3 Herald Sun Tour
- 2009
- 1st Stage 4 Herald Sun Tour
- 2010
- 1st Stage 4 Bay Classic Series
- 2011
- 2nd Paris–Bourges
- 5th Dwars door Vlaanderen
- 10th Gent–Wevelgem
Grand Tour general classification results timeline
| Grand Tour | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Giro d'Italia
|
— | — | — | DNF | — | — | — | — | DNF | — | — | — |
 Tour de France
|
127 | 140 | 139 | 142 | — | — | DNF | — | — | — | 117 | — |
 Vuelta a España
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | DNF |
| DSQ | Disqualified |
| DNF | Did not finish |