Ex England and Crystal Palace footballer Geoff Thomas, who has ridden the Tour de France route twice, talks about January’s London-Paris 09 training ride.
“Come and stay for the weekend,” said Sven. How can you turn down an offer like that? Great company, legendary South African hospitality, good food, fine wine - a couple of bottles of vintage Cape grape, I thought. But I’d forgotten it was Burns Night and hadn’t reckoned on drinking Scotch on the Saturday night!
Being a finely tuned athlete and minor medical miracle (a bone marrow transplant saved my life after I got leukaemia), one glass of wine is enough to plunge me into a coma. So, a couple of glasses of malt wasn’t exactly the best preparation for January’s training ride! I have to admit to burying my head under the duvet when Sven came knocking on the bedroom door at 6am.
Nevertheless, I dragged myself to the coffee shop in Esher to join the other forty or so L2P riders loading up with caffeine. It was my first time in the saddle in 2009 and what a baptism. And I mean baptism. It was pouring with rain, blowing what felt like a force 10 and the wind chill factor, despite the cycling wear technology, must have been minus 5!
A 30 mile thrash around the flooded roads of Surrey doesn’t sound like a barrel of laughs – but that’s just what it was! I know about the L2P camaraderie, having ridden last year, and it was very much in evidence on this inclement Sunday morning. I got my head down, followed the leaders and really enjoyed my first experience of an L2P training ride, despite the car drivers’ eyes lighting up as they saw 40 cyclists and some very large puddles. We certainly made a splash!
The highlight was cycling with the Alex Ferguson of road cycling – Scott Sunderland, the man who helped mastermind Carlos Sastre’s Tour de France victory last year. It’s not often you get two men who’ve cheated death cycling side by side! I’ve survived blood cancer and Scott survived a blood clot on the brain after a cycling race accident.
It was a real inspiration to meet Scott who’s a laid back Aussie with steely determination and a great sense of humour. This man knows how to win and I’m looking forward to joining him on L2P this June.
Safe cycling and look forward to seeing you on the next training ride.
Geoff Thomas
www.geoffthomasfoundation.com