for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, she broke a collarbone during the Manchester leg of the UCI Track World Cup; despite this, and the lack of any team support, she came third in the road race at the Games in March 2006. In her autobiography Cooke wrote "By their decision the WCU had gifted Australia, Canada, England and New Zealand my head on a plate". None of the six Welsh men completed the men's race. On 1 August 2006 Cooke took over as number 1 on the UCI's women's world road race rankings. On 3 September 2006 she secured the UCI Women's Road World Cup for a second time after winning three world cup races in the season – La Flèche Wallonne Féminine, the Ladies Golden Hour and the Castilla y Leon World Cup Race. She also won the 2006 Grande Boucle, the women's Tour de France, by over 6 minutes. Other important wins included four stages and the overall title at Thüringen-Rundfahrt stage race and the Magali Pache Time Trial. She came third in the UCI World Road Race Championships. In 2007, Cooke took the Geelong World Cup and the Ronde van Vlaanderen, the first two races on the 2007 UCI Women's Road World Cup. These early season wins led to her setting a new record in the UCI's women's world road race rankings for the gap between the first and second ranked cyclists. She also won the Trofeo Alfredo Binda for a second time, the Tour of Geelong, stage 2 of the GP Costa Etrusca and defended her Grande Boucle title. A knee injury sustained prior to the last race of the 2007 World Cup, the Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt, prevented Cooke from fully defending her title with close challenger Marianne Vos winning the final race and taking the title. Cooke had led the series since the first race. The injury forced her to miss the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart. Cooke later admitted in an interview in 2008 that she had considered quitting the sport due to the injury. 2008: Olympic and World success Cooke joined Team Halfords Bikehut for 2008. Her first victory of 2008 was the Tour de l'Aude, in which she rode with a Great Britain national team, taking the first stage and finishing fourth overall. On 28 June, Cooke won her ninth national road race champion title, and her eighth consecutive win. Cooke