May 2011

When Footballers Go Cycling

Everybody is cycling nowadays, including plenty of former pro footballers. I did this job a couple of weeks ago in Surrey as a publicity initiative for the London to Paris and the Alpine Challenge sportives. A group including Lee Dixon, Mark Bright, Geoff Thomas and John Salako did some of the Surrey Hills, ably shepherded by pro bike racer Magnus Backstedt.

It was a nice day out in the sun, marred slightly by Surrey drivers who really need to take a long hard look around and chill out a bit. The details of the ride and what happened will be in a Cycling Weekly ride story later on, but one thing I’ll say now is that John Salako was
a revelation.

Despite the group being hauled over 40 miles of Surrey’s finest hills, and by that I mean steepest, Salako pranced up every one and was fresh as a daisy at the end. At the other end of the football peloton Mark Bright joked that he hates cycling “It starts nice with coffee in the sunshine but quickly descends into a world of pain.”

It was fun, but the important message of the day came from Geoff Thomas.
He pulled these footballers into the ride,
just as he is with others for several
fund-raising initiatives for Leukaemia
and Lymphoma Research.

Thomas was diagnosed with Leukaemia after he retired from football, and his life saved by stem cell transplant. He’s committed to raising money to help others, creating the Geoff Thomas Foundation and undertaking numerous high profile and testing challenges, including riding the whole route of the Tour
de France.

His foundation have now merged with Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, creating the only UK charity solely dedicated to research into blood cancers,
including leukaemia, lymphoma and
myeloma. These cancers are diagnosed in around 28,500
children, teenagers and adults in the UK every year.

http://youtu.be/0NtlRE3tDhA