AS the Greek dust settles and the Athens smog lifts Nicole Cooke has been reflecting on her weekend of hell.

On Saturday her father was arrested in Greece for scrawling her name on the roads of Athens with chalk.

And a day later the Welsh cyclist suffered the heartbreak of missing out on a medal in the road race, despite being the hot favourite for gold. And as the Welsh ace for Wick admits she's looking forward to returning to action tomorrow so that she can put the disappointment of the past few days behind her.

" I came here for gold in the road race, and to come away with nothing is heart-breaking," admitted Cooke. "I'm only 21 and will get other opportunities but I won't know what type of shape I'll be in next time around so this is a wasted chance.

"But I've got to forget about it and I've got the time trial coming up and despite putting all my efforts into the road race I hope I can come away with something from that.

"It'll need a good effort from me on Wednesday but I'm confident I can recover and I'm sure that if I don't win medals then there are still medals in this team to be won by other members, especially on the track where I'm sure they'll do us proud."

Cooke has also had a couple of days to reflect on her father's arrest at the weekend, but after the initial anger she's starting to see the funny side.

She said: "The spot where my dad wrote my name was still visible which was a help.

"I didn't know what to think when he got arrested, I'm trying to see the funny side.

"I just thought If you go to Verona in Italy for the road race championships there then the roads are covered with the names or riders and the names of teams but I guess the Greeks don't really understand the traditions of the sport.

"He did it three times before they caught him and when I heard I just thought that the Greeks don't know about cycling and that they should go to Verona in October to see what they do there."