NICOLE Cooke has conquered Wales but now she aims to take on the world and claim Olympic gold next summer.

Cooke,who on Monday won the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year, vowed not to rest on her laurels and go all out in her quest to become the world's greatest ever female cyclist.

"It would be easy for me to say that I'm targeting the next Olympics to win gold but that's in four year's time and anything could happen," said Cooke.

"So I'm going all out to win gold in Athens this summer, I've got a fantastic opportunity and I intend to grab it with both hands."

Cooke beat Cwm's Mark Williams into first place with 30.7 per cent of the vote in last night's live awards ceremony.

This season, Cooke became the youngest ever winner of the women's World Cup and the first Briton to achieve the honour.

In only her second year on the women's world circuit, Cooke showed her growing talent by winning the third and fourth stages of the nine-stage World Cup.

Her team, Ausra Gruodis-Safi, then took the bold decision to make Cooke the team leader over more experienced campaigners.

She re-paid her Italian employers' faith by wrapping up the title with one stage still to go.

Cooke added a fourth British Road Race championship title in five years in June around the roads of East Gwent, then a bronze in the season finale World Championships.

And the Swansea-born, Wick-raised Commonwealth Games star has revealed her inspiration as a child - a man they called 'The Cannibal.'

"When I was younger, I didn't really have any female sporting idols that I looked up to but Eddie Merckx was a big hero of mine.

"He was like the greatest cyclist of all time and was someone to aspire too and if I could be as successful as he was, then I would have done really well for myself, so I'm aiming to be the female version of Eddie."

Cooke also revealed that her father Tony has been a massive influence on her career.

"I guess I really got into cycling because he used to take us on cycling holidays," admitted Cooke.

"But in my early days he was a massive influence and got me to were I am today. But as I have got older then the more I have had to look after myself.

She trains 21 hours a week cycling around 400 miles and the Welsh star is now also using Newport's velodrome.

"It's a great facility and there really isn't anything like this in Europe. It's good for me to know that when I come home that I can still train.

"Welsh cycling will really start to feel the benefits from this in a few year's and hopefully we can start producing a few more world class cyclists."