Crystal Palace hero went from beating leukaemia to riding Tour de France route

Daily Mirror

16-05-2025

WALLY MEETS: Geoff Thomas captained Crystal Palace in the 1990 FA Cup final and is now undertaking epic charity bike rides - with the football legend giving his thoughts on Saturday's Wembley match
Geoff Thomas is back on the bike, preparing to climb Tour de France monster peak Mount Ventoux as Crystal Palace face their Everest at Wembley.
Some 20 years after he went into remission, after being diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia and warned he may have only three months to live, Thomas is counting his blessings - and hoping Palace make history. Back in July 2003 – the month when Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea and David Beckham left Manchester United – the outlook was bleak for the first Palace captain to lead the Eagles into the FA Cup final.
‌
Revolutionary stem cell treatment, recommended by his consultant Dr Charlie Craddock, saved his life. When he dodged the Grim Reaper's scythe, Thomas resolved to raise funds for Cure Leukaemia by undertaking epic charity bike rides to help other blood cancer patients.
‌
Now, at 60, he is gearing up for his seventh assault on the Tour route, all 2,062 miles of it in 21 stages, a week before the professional peloton thanks to cutting-edge hydrogel Arthrosamid lubricating his battle-scarred knees. And he will be at Wembley hoping to see Palace land their first major trophy against the team he supported as a boy.
'I'm a Manchester lad and I was brought up as a City fan,' said Thomas, warming down after a training ride-out on the bike. 'We weren't even allowed to look at the red side of Manchester, it was out of bounds!
'But now I'm rooting for Crystal Palace. I'm as desperate as any fan for Palace to enjoy something special and unprecedented in their history - lifting the FA Cup.
'The Cup final is a magical occasion, something you're blessed to be a part of, and as a player you have a chance to write your name in Wembley history. It's a very different stadium now to the one where we played the 1990 final.
"The long walk up the tunnel with your studs going clack-clack-clack on the concrete floor, the same walk as England's 1966 World Cup team, is something that never leaves you. Now you walk out on to the pitch by the halfway line and after a dozen steps it's over. Don't get me wrong, it's still a magnificent stadium, but it feels very continental.
‌
'But I would love it if Palace could go one step further than us in 1990. We were minutes away from glory, and I was beginning to dream of how I was going to lift the Cup, until Mark Hughes broke our hearts near the end of extra time.
'Although it went to a replay, we still climbed the 39 steps to the Royal Box after the first game to shake hands with the dignitaries, and when I turned towards the Palace fans I lifted the imaginary trophy in case I didn't get the chance to lift the real thing.
'Some people play the air guitar when they sing along to a favourite song - I lifted the air FA Cup. But it was a special moment in my life. A few years earlier I had been an apprentice electrician, getting up at five in the morning to wire plugs and change sockets.
‌
'Nobody gave us a chance in our semi-final against Liverpool 36 years ago because they had annihilated us 9-0 in the League at Anfield, and most people will make City the favourites this time. Kevin de Bruyne is a special player, one of the best we've ever seen, but Palace can do some damage of their own with this squad. Ebs (Eberechi Eze) is such a class player, JP (Jean-Philippe Mateta) has been in fantastic form, and Ismaila Sarr has really come to the fore this year. And Adam Wharton in midfield is a cut above. He looks like he's been playing the game for years.'
Thomas was a portrait of calmness as he followed manager Steve Coppell into the Wembley cauldron in 1990, souvenir pennant in folded in one hand and spinning a ball on his finger like a Harlem Globetrotter with the other. Coppell had referred Ian Wright to a faith healer, to try and accelerate his express recovery from a broken leg, and the livewire striker was fit enough to make the bench.
‌
'They were chucking everything at Wrighty to try and get him fit,' said Thomas. 'When he came on with about 20 minutes to go, he was like a coiled spring. And when he put us 3-2 up, I really thought it was going to be our moment.'
In the replay, a dour match settled by Lee Martin's winner for United, Palace wore banana-and-charcoal stripes - a one-off kit designed by Thomas as a throwback to his junior days. 'Steve was a bit superstitious about certain kits,' he revealed. 'We had lost heavily, somewhere like Everton, in our designated away strip - we didn't wear it again.
‌
'It was our turn to wear away colours in the replay and it was my idea to come up with the 'bumble bee' look. Steve asked me what I thought we should do and I just chucked that idea out there, not thinking anything would come of it, but when we turned up at Wembley on the Thursday night the bumble bees were waiting for us.'
After the Cup final, all roads lead to Paris for Thomas and his Tour21 crew. Like previous instalments of the ride, they are hoping to raise £1 million for blood cancer research charities.
‌
He had to abandon his mini-peloton in 2022 when the cobbled sections in northern France rattled his knees like cocktail shaker, but the hydrogel treatment has given him a fighting chance of avoiding the excruciating bone-on-bone trauma.
If you've ever driven up Ventoux, the 'Beast of Provence', let alone cycled it, you'll know it's a steeper task than Oliver Glasner 's Eagles face against City. Come on, you Arthrosamid.