'They thought I was dying' - Meet the 80-year-old Brit who won four world titles weeks after leaving hospital

When 80-year-old Geoff Cooke left hospital late last summer, the doctors told him he’d need to do a bit of exercise to bounce back from his treatment. “It was quite funny really,” he begins to chuckle. “I think they were talking about walking. I said, ‘Listen, you can’t imagine what I actually do. I do 200 miles a week on the bike. I’m an Olympian. I’m a Commonwealth Games gold medallist. I’ve been doing it for years. I was national coach for 10 years. Cycling’s been my life’,” he pauses. “I don’t think they quite believed me.”

Every word Cooke spoke was, of course, true. A track sprinter for Great Britain at the 1972 Munich Olympics, he had been admitted to hospital for a gallbladder procedure, having been struck down by a gallstone that was causing him enormous pain. The timing couldn’t have been worse. In six weeks, he was down to compete at the UCI Masters Track World Championships, the most important date in his calendar. He had only missed one edition since the competition was first held in 1995. All of a sudden, his 80-year-old body threatened to end his near 30-year streak.

Cooke’s first symptoms came five months before the Worlds on a cycling holiday with his friends on the Greek island of Zakynthos. “I said, ‘Lads, you’ll have to go on, I have to stop’,” he remembers. “It had me on my knees. They thought I was dying, I’m sure they did.” The pain soon eased off, but when Cooke returned home, he noticed that he was losing weight, so he took himself to the hospital. “When I went, they put a camera down, and they blew up my stomach,” he says. “The doctor pulled the camera out, and I said, ‘What is it? Is it cancer?’ And she said, ‘No, you’ve not got cancer. But your gallbladder’s in a mess’.”

The doctors tried to drain Cooke’s gallbladder, but the stone was too tightly lodged. Instead, they fitted a stent, and after two days in hospital, Cooke was sent on his way with the stone still inside. He returned to training immediately. “I worked my socks off before I went into hospital, and when I came out, I just sat on the rollers and watched my wife’s disapproval,” he says. “She was saying, ‘Take your time, for goodness sake. Take your time.’” Did he follow her advice? “It took me a little while before I actually sprinted, but I was rolling around. Then I went out and just did 50 miles, and I thought, 'There ain’t much wrong here, Cookie. Let’s go for it.' And that’s what I did, I just went for it.”

A track sprinter by trade, Cooke began racing at the sport’s top level when he was 16. He went on to represent Great Britain in the velodrome at the 1972 Olympics, and two years later, became Commonwealth Games champion in the tandem. Following his retirement, his passion for cycling only grew stronger. Today, he’s a legend of the veterans’ sessions at Derby Velodrome, open to riders aged 40 and above. “Bill’s 75, but most of them are around the 50s, 60s mark,” Cooke says. “I’m definitely the oldest in the group, but I can hold my own, that’s for sure.” Holding his own is putting it very modestly. “At 80, you should be grateful for everything you get,” he says, “but I do work very hard at it. I’m very competitive. Chris Boardman once said about me, ‘Geoff is hugely competitive’, and I am, even now. It’s the only thing I’ve been really good at in my life, and I enjoy just riding my bike. During lockdown, I did 9,200 miles all on my own, just riding around local lanes.”

When Cooke travelled to Roubaix last October for the Masters Track World Championships, he already had 60 gold medals to his name. This time, however, there was a new obstacle: he would have to compete with a gallstone still inside him. “I thought, 'If it kicks off while I’m away, am I going to cope?'” he recalls. His first event was the scratch race, a first-over-the-line dash after 20 laps. He lined up as the only Brit in the race, and finished third, but earned himself a rainbow jersey as the best-placed rider in the 80-plus category. The next day, he doubled his haul, setting a new world best time in his age bracket in the 500m time trial, clocking 40.199 seconds over the two laps. Then came the points race, which he won, too.

The gallstone was thankfully kept at bay. In fact, Cooke had trained so well for the competition that he found himself in the form of his life – “I felt terrific,” he says. His next bid for gold would come in the match sprint, an event he rode at the 1972 Olympics, and the final one on his competition programme. With three new titles already banked, he sat in his hotel and rested his legs ahead of qualifying. But then his phone rang. The schedule had changed, he was told, and he had missed his heat. “I blame myself because I should have checked,” Cooke says. “It was one of those things that I was setting myself up to win. So I thought, ‘Right, I’m going to ride the pursuit.’”

Of Cooke’s 63 previous masters world titles, none had come in the individual pursuit. It was a discipline he had openly mocked over the years. “I used to say it’s not racing, pursuiting – how can you race someone on the other side of the track?” he says disdainfully. “Of course, now I know it’s proper racing. I can promise you that – I was breathing through everywhere.”

Pursuiting, it turned out, would be yet another feather he could add to his cap. Cooke shocked himself and those trackside in qualifying when he set another world best time, crossing the line on 2:46.597 after the 2,000m. He then faced an Australian opponent in the final, and caught him with a lap to go. “He said, ‘I was waiting for you to come! Why did it take you so long?’” Cooke recalls proudly. It might not have been what the doctors had in mind, but at 80 years old, and just six weeks out of hospital, he had won four new world titles.

Since October’s Masters Track Worlds, Cooke has been back to the hospital and had his gallstone removed. He has also been given medicine for an underactive thyroid. “I’ve been taking what they gave me, and I’m absolutely bloody flying. Honestly, I am,” he laughs. It’s the same warm chuckle Cooke responded with when commissaires pulled him aside for drug testing after his exploits in Roubaix. “At 80 years old, to be dope tested, it’s just incredible,” he says. “The doctor and I were really laughing together.” To no one’s surprise, there have been no adverse findings, and Cooke’s two new records have been ratified. He has since vowed he’ll go even faster when he returns to the World Championships later this year. “Now I’ve got this underactive thyroid treatment, I’m well on my way,” he says.

In Cooke’s every utterance, there’s an infectious lust for life, the kind that drives someone to race beyond their eightieth year. While most riders at his age might have given up pushing themselves – particularly after a painful health scare – Cooke continues to find a deeper will to carry on. What is it that keeps him motivated? “I just enjoy riding my bike,” he says, as if the answer should be obvious. “Because I’m still winning, and I enjoy winning – I make no bones about that – you just keep doing it, don’t you?” There’s also a more profound reason that spurs him on. “Cycling, in a way, saved my life. I was a bit of a tearaway as a youngster, getting into trouble and into fights, but cycling gave me something to channel all that into. It’s been my life, really,” he says. “I’m going to do it for as long as I can. It’s as simple as that.”

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 20 February 2025. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.