Quotes from Eddy Merckx

Winning big Tours and stage races is often about pain management.

Everything being equal, no sickness or crashes, there's nobody who can beat Lance Armstrong at the Tour de France.

I don't like it when people say I was the best ever. It's silly. I am not the best ever. I was the best of my time.

It is not enough to have talent alone. You will have to train hard and motivate yourself to do your best. You should learn to live for your sport.

I have decided to give up competition. I cannot train properly for the Tour de France which I had hoped to ride for the last time as apotheosis to my career. Doctors are forbidding me to ride anymore in high level competition and I bow to them.

India is a big country. Here people are talented, they are motivated. If they train properly, I see no reason why India won't produce world class cyclists in 10 years.

If you have big talent and don't train it's all over.

You had to be strong in the head... training, training and training. That is the only way, even if you have big talent.

I wore the yellow jersey 96 times. It is the best memory of my career. It still gives me goosebumps.

I won 34 Tour stages by winning sprints, in the mountains, in time trials and going on the attack on the descents. Let's not forget the five yellow jerseys I've got at home plus the 96 days I wore it. Does that not seem much?

You know the cycling federation in the U.K. did a good job of going around schools and scouting young riders. The Belgian federation is not like that. It is asleep.

The smaller races were where you made your money.

We're not millionaires, but we live well.

Miracles can sometimes happen in cycling.

The day when I start a race without intending to win it, I won't be able to look at myself in the mirror.

It's a shame to mix sports and politics.

Even when I was a kid I wanted to win everything: a game of Monopoly, a game of cards, dominoes.

You know when you are in the peloton and you come near the Ventoux, nobody's speaking anymore, you can hear a fly, because it's always very quiet because everybody's afraid about the Ventoux, because it's a hard climb.

Ride as much or as little, or as long or as short as you feel. But ride.

You can only be the best of your time. I was the best of my time.

In my time also when you do good, Frenchmen don't like it.

Fear never left me during the tour - the fear of a spill, fear for accidents, for mishaps, for the unexpected which might ruin everything at the end.

I'd have no problem with Cavendish winning 34 or 35 Tour stages.

I hated losing. Being defeated made me sick, I couldn't stand it.