Quotes About Cycling

Cycling is so hard, the suffering is so intense, that it's absolutely cleansing. The pain is so deep and strong that a curtain descends over your brain….Once; someone asked me what pleasure I took in riding for so long. 'PLEASURE???? I said.' 'I don't understand the question.' I didn't do it for the pleasure; I did it for the pain.

I want to die at a hundred years old with an American flag on my back and the star of Texas on my helmet, after screaming down an Alpine descent on a bicycle at 75 miles per hour. I want to cross one last finish line as my wife and my ten children applaud, and then I want to lie down in a field of those famous French sunflowers and gracefully expire, the perfect contradiction to my once anticipated poignant early demise.

Every year the media comes up with something to describe my race The first year it was "the comeback." Then it was the "the confirmation." I don't know what it was last year. This year, for me, it's "the year of the team." I can't say how I compare to the rider I was in 1999 or 2000 or 2001, but this team is much stronger than it has ever been. It has made it easier for me.

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 want to be motivational and inspirational for everybody: my big aim is more women on bicycles.

My job in the Tour is to get the sponsor's logo in the most prominent place.

I'd love to see Will Ferrell play me in a spoof track cycling movie.

In fact cycling has always been 'saved' by judicial investigations and not by the anti-doping controls we put in place. That's the harsh truth. We have relied on them to clean the sport up.

I love being on my bike, but I don't consider that a sport: it's too pleasant.

When you win sprints, you're a great sprinter, but when you win a great one-day race, you've proved you're a great rider.

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

If somebody had told me as a kid that I would win 30 stages of the Tour de France I probably wouldn't have imagined it. I probably imagined I could do it - I don't lack confidence - but at the end of the day one Tour de France stage win can make a rider's career.

I have a road bike and a mountain bike, and I tend to use them both a lot. They help you keep your balance and your stamina.

I was stage-struck from an early age. I just loved the language. We lived quite near Stratford so I would cycle and watch the plays.

Especially with the signing of riders with climbing abilities and the new arrival of Tyler Hamilton, who has the strength and ability to become a great leader for the big tours. All in all, I feel this is a very complete team.

Don't evaluate a short ride in physiological terms. Easy pedaling is good thinking time. I get all kinds of ideas for bikes, products, and general life solutions during short rides. The super grand solutions often come after twenty minutes, but you'll get some good ones within five; and if you don't, it's still better than five minutes of sitting down and eating five minutes

Solution 2: Don't let your blinky light blink. By keeping it on steady mode, you'll use up the battery faster, but you'll be around to buy more. Don't be cheap and dead.

I don't encourage blasting through stop signs or riding like an idiot. I want to make that clear. But given the number of riders (and idiots) out there, there are bound to be some who ride that way and, yes, anger drivers. But they also keep drivers on their toes - here comes another cyclist; I wonder if he's as oblivious and suicidal as the last one...

Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia.

After your first day of cycling, one dream is inevitable. A memory of motion lingers in the muscles of your legs, and round and round they seem to go. You ride through Dreamland on wonderful dream bicycles that change and grow.

I find it difficult, the method of working in the cycling union, the lack of professionalism.

The stronger you are as a unit, the more you can control a race. The strongest cyclist in the world isn't as strong as two guys, let alone nine.

When I see a room full of people pedaling away on stationary bikes, I fall into an existential spiral. It's confirmation that all we do as humans is pedal, pedal, pedal, and go nowhere. We're just specks of dust in the universe, riding 1970s stationary bicycles.

As a professional track cyclist, I have always challenged myself, and I enjoy seeing how I cope when faced with the unknown.