World Cup leader Nicole Cooke was knocked out of the Tour de Grande Montreal on Tuesday after colliding with a motorcycle. The 20-year-old Welsh cyclist suffered a seven-stitch gash on her knee and a bruised shoulder after slamming into a parked motorbike during the third stage of the Tour de Grande Montreal. She is expected to be out for 10 days.

"My arm was hurting so much, I thought it was broken," said Cooke.

Cooke was taken to hospital but X-rays showed no broken bones.

The motorcycle belonged to a race official who was monitoring the progress of the riders, said race spokesperson Marie-Josee Gervais. Cooke was traveling at 40kph when the crash took place.

The impact snapped her bike in two.

"We were riding along in a line with about 25 kilometers to go," Cooke explained. "Two riders in front of me just missed this huge motorbike on the side of the road, but I couldn't avoid it.

"I went down and several riders piled on top of me. My bike was in pieces, the top tube and down tube both broke and it was just held together by the cables.”

Cooke said X-rays show that her shoulder is just bruised where it hit the motorbike.

"I've had one internal stitch and six external ones,” Cooke said. “There's a line of them across my knee which have to stay in for ten days." Cooke won the gold in 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games road race. Coincidentally, her last major crash was also in Canada two years ago at the GP Quebec. She suffered cuts and bruises in the crash but managed to finish the race.

Cooke, the former junior world champion, is hoping the injury doesn't hamper her ability to hold onto her World Cup points lead. "The good thing is the timing," she said. "I shouldn't miss any of my main goals for the season."
-- Copyright AFP2003