Cooke, whose father and grandfather hail from Coventry, beat Lizzie Armitstead and Emma Pooley to win the 110km race.
It was the tenth time that Cooke has been crowned British Championship and she said to www.cyclingnews.com after the race: "This was very special win for me with number ten. "It is very sad what happened to Lizzie with the silver medal. In sport you have things in black and white and Lizzie was second in the results and a very worthy winner of that medal. Everyone was disappointed and no one wanted to take a medal that wasn't theirs. We are all competitors and we all want a fair result and that is what we had on paper. It was very special for me today to win the jersey with the home crowd on a beautiful course and with a really good finish as well. Emma (Pooley) put a hard attack on the first lap and it was good to be able to judge how she was going at that point."
Picture courtesy of www.cyclingnews.com
"All of us had tried attacking on the finishing circuit. "I knew it was going to come down to a sprint finish and I have had some good sprint finishes in the last few weeks so I was feeling OK . You can't ever be totally confident but I just knew that I could produce a good finish if I got my timing right and didn't make any mistakes. The team has had a couple of really good weeks. We have got a great team spirit and have got the momentum going now in what is a very small team in its first year."
"The course today had a lot to offer. I have done a lot of training on these roads and had the home support which is always an advantage. I am still as motivated to race as when I first started. I have achieved my dream of becoming World and Olympic champion but I still love the thrill of racing and very happy to continue. My big target of the season is the World Championships."
The men race which features the likes of Mark Cavendish is later today.