Cycling Competition Quotes

The Tour de France is a wicked sport in the way that it's not just man against man or woman against woman; it's not flesh against flesh. It's flesh against machine.

I think an Olympic medal is the only thing missing from what I can physically achieve as a cyclist. I can't win the Tour de France, but I've pretty much won everything else that I can within my physical realm, so that's the only thing missing.

At the Tour, you always have some fantastic days and some days where you hit the asphalt. Today was an asphalt day for me.

Truth is, a triathlete won the Tour de France seven times.

It's all well and good having a women's Tour de France - which I think we need and I think we should have. But I think we should slowly build it in and not just go 'Bam!' with three weeks over the same course and same length of time as the men's.

Nowadays, we have to deal with so many more factors that weren't there in the past. It's not enough to be a good rider, if you want to finish at the front. The riders have become incredible athletes. In the past, you could manage the race and fight only on the last laps. Now you need to train hard. You cannot allow yourself to go on track without being at 100 percent.

At the end of the day, I'm riding a little kid's bike around a track; that's what I've done for as long as I can remember. Now it's just on a bigger stage at the Olympics.

I never thought we'd catch him, and when I saw he was ready to drop I felt sorry for him. I wanted to show it's not true I'm trying to win it all. My goal is the Tour of Spain.

Well, you better ride like you stole something 'cause you are about to win a stage in the Tour de Fance.

Whatever I won in cycling, I won with my own skills. I never won anything I couldn't win. For example, I never won a time trial at 60 kph, whereas others have and maybe still do.

The Giro's difficult to predict for the points jersey because there are so many mountain-top finishes and there are as many points on offer for mountain stages as for sprints. It's really for the most consistent all-round rider and it's pretty difficult for me to win it.

I've given gifts in the Tour de France and it's come back to bit me. So no gifts.

The idea for the 'Speed' series was to break the record for the fastest push bike.

We sped on, across the plains, toward Metz. I hung back, saving myself. It is called the Race of Truth. The early stages separate the strong riders from the weak. Now the weak would be eliminated altogether.

Sometimes the hardest part of the stage is right at the beginning. The other teams will leave it to us to chase down a breakaway, and we can't allow a big group to go up the road - anything more than four riders is trouble.

The bicycle riders drank much wine, and were burned and browned by the sun. They did not take the race seriously except among themselves.

I'd love to win Paris-Roubaix.

I would love to end my European campaign with the World Championship stripes on my back. But everything else that I have in my mind right now is to continue working with and having my little camps for women cyclists.

I never expected to compete at home in a UCI women's race - let alone as world champion.

I am really looking forward to being present in my first three-week race, the Giro d'Italia, a huge and prestigious event that captures one's imagination.

It's fantastic news that the Aviva Women's Tour will continue in 2016.

If you go to Wikipedia and you look at the Tour de France, there's this huge block in World War One with no winners, and there's another block in World War Two. And then it seems like there's another world war.

If you want a lot of endorsements then you'd pick the Olympics. But I've had a passion for the Tour since I was a kid. Let's put it this way: it would be harder to win a stage on the Tour de France so that would mean more. I'd take the Tour win first - but I'm aiming for both.

I promise you, I will never enter a bicycle race.

My big objective this season is to win three gold medals at the Olympics, in the road race, the time trial and the points race.