Baden Cooke

Baden Cooke, born on 12 October 1978 in Benalla, Victoria, is an Australian road cyclist who raced professionally from 2000 to 2013. He took up competitive cycling at the age of eleven and was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. His professional career began with the Mercury team, and after a difficult first adjustment to racing in Europe he won stages of the Herald Sun Tour and the Sea Otter Classic. Moving to the French team Francaise des Jeux in 2002, he finished third in the Commonwealth Games road race behind fellow Australians Stuart O'Grady and Cadel Evans. He rode the Tour de France in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2012, and in 2003 he won the green jersey of the points classification by two points over Robbie McEwen after a tight finish on the Champs-Elysees. He represented Australia in the road race at the 2004 Summer Olympics. After retiring he worked as a rider agent and appeared on Australian Survivor in 2021.