Cycling Performance Quotes

Cycling is an endurance sport. You lose your fast-twitch ability as you age, but your endurance peaks when you hit 30. I don't think I really started feeling my age until around 40.

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

Apparently I'm not a pro cyclist.

Team GB's success at the Beijing Olympics can, in part, be said to have been made in Manchester. For example, all the cycling medal winners trained at Manchester's velodrome, the National Cycling Centre.

I have a specialized racing bike, which is great because it has a solid build, is comfortable to ride, and is lightweight.

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.

I was always cycling for my dad. Then the coaches got bigger, and my results got better. Suddenly, the responsibility grows, and I'm doing it for somebody else, I'm doing it for a programme; I'm doing it for the country. I'm doing it for, like, everybody.

I don't like comparisons with Merckx or any other rider because we're talking about different eras, so it doesn't make any sense.

I don't think it's the worst thing ever to start when you're in your twenties. You're not burnt out, you're going to stick around and most of the best cyclists are in their 30s.

I love to eat a lot, but I try to eat healthy stuff. Especially when you're riding, sometimes I get hooked up with the cycling and when you're riding three, four, five hours, then you can put whatever you want in your body.

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.

I have a strong, inspiring, and professional group of women around me with Boels-Dolmans. We race and train incredibly hard as a team.

I like to have plans in place so I know what I am doing and when. Take nutrition. When I am on the bike I will start off eating solid food like rice cakes made with pistachios or energy bars. Then as the race goes on, halfway though I will switch to gels as they get into your system more quickly and they are easier to palate when you're tired.

I think everyone lifts themselves that little bit extra for the Tour de France, being the pinnacle of our cycling calendar.

I'd love to be able to dominate cycling in general, not just one event.

Pace judgement is everything in the hour record. If you can ride 16.1 or 16.2-second laps constantly for 221 laps, and not go 15.9s or 16.4s, it's keeping it on the line every lap, lap after lap.

The other sprinters are big and powerful but I have different strengths. The first thing is my leg speed. Most guys sprint at 120 revolutions per minute but I sprint at 130-140: think of it like a smaller engine revving faster. My body is shorter too, so I can lean over the handlebars for a more aerodynamic profile: again, think a smaller engine but in an F1 car.

Cycling is based so much on form, on aesthetics, on class - the way you carry yourself on the bike, the sort of technique you have.

Training-wise, I don't have an extreme plan I stick to. I know what I have to do, I know the goal. But it's not really structured. That's the beauty of road cycling. It all depends on the conditions on the day and where you are in the world.