Hope that is the only antidote to fear.
Regardless of one victory, two victories, four victories, there’s never been a victory by a cancer survivor. That’s a fact that hopefully I’ll be remembered for.
Life to me is a series of false limits and my challenge as an athlete is to explore those limits.
I am just coming into my best years. This year I did new things; stretching and abdominal work.
Cycling is a sport of the open road and spectators are lining that road.
My cocktail, so to speak, was only EPO, but not a lot, transfusions and testosterone.
But, listen, Eddie Merkyx would have won six Tours if he hadn’t been punched.
In my most painful moments on the bike, I am at my most curious and I wonder each and every time how I will respond.
The Europeans look down on raising your hands. They don’t like the end-zone dance. I think that’s unfortunate. That feeling – the finish line, the last couple of meters – is what motivates me.
It works better for me to be nervous and hungry.
If a script writer had come up with a story resembling what you have just achieved, even the Hollywood studios would have refused.
I can get up in the morning and look myself in the mirror and my family can look at me too and that’s all that matters.
When I was sick, I didn’t want to die. When I race, I don’t want to lose. Dying and losing, it’s the same thing.
I guess if a person didn’t quit when the going got tough, they wouldn’t have anything to regret for the rest of their life.
It’s funny, because I have periods where I just kind of go dark. I don’t tweet, I don’t talk, I don’t interview, and then I have times where I do.
At least I didn’t invent a dead girlfriend.
Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. That surrender, even the smallest act of giving up, stays with me. So when I feel like quitting, I ask myself, which would I rather live with?
Some things you can’t win, though I don’t like to admit it. I’m not used to losing much of anything, whether its a race or a debate, but among the things that I nearly lost are my life, my neck, and my good name, and I’ve gained a realization: a life of unbroken success is not only impossible, it’s probably not even good for you...
Make every obstacle an opportunity.” And that’s what we did.
Make every negative into a positive,” as my mother says. Nothing goes to waste, you put it all to use, the old wounds and long-ago slights become the stuff of competitive energy.