Education
He completed secondary school at Galen College in Wangaratta, Victoria, and was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.
He completed secondary school at Galen College in Wangaratta, Victoria, and was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.
Born in Benalla, Victoria, Cooke began competitive cycling at 11. His professional career began with the Mercury team in 2000, though he found racing in Europe to be more challenging than initially expected. Nevertheless, he adapted.
He also participated in the Tour de France in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2012.
In 2004 Cooke came 12th in the points classification. Cooke represented Australia in the road race at the 2004 Summer Olympics along with McEwen, Michael Rogers, O"Grady and Matt White.
Cooke raced 2006 and 2007 for Unibet.com. He joined Barloworld for 2008 but in 2009 moved to Dutch cycling team Vacansoleil.
Cooke announced on his website that he will ride for Team Saxo Bank in 2010 – he continued with that team in 2011, before moving to the new GreenEDGE team for the 2012 season.
After the 2013 season, Cooke retired. After retiring, Cooke announced that he was moving into rider management. He subsequently also became agent for Michael Matthews, Gert Steegmans and Janez Brajkovič.
He recently purchased a stake in Factor bikes and Black Incorporated wheels.