Top 87 Quotes & Sayings by Manx Authors

I'm not as talented as others, but I have a determination and will that enable me to work a lot harder than anyone else.

All that matters is to be first across the line.

I'm fortunate in one way and I can take pride from the fact that I've consistently performed for 10 years, which is something that not many people can do. I've consistently stayed near the top for 10 years which is maybe something that is overlooked and taken for granted.

I used to walk down a street and nobody would notice me. Now, I get stopped all the time; people saying, 'well done'. It makes me really, really proud to have done my bit to help make cycling a little bit more popular.

I heal pretty well and I know if I crash on the first day of the Tour de France, I've got to get up and get on with it.

When I was younger, I didn't really train for the sprint - I trained to get over the mountains. I have to train it now I'm getting older. But the sprint is more born, rather than made.

During the Tour you get tired, you get exhausted, you're in pain and you can get sick for a few days but still have to ride through it.

The Olympics is where you see out of this world performances, isn't it?

The descents are quite fun - everybody has a sort of competition and tries to go for it and then you compare top speeds when you get to the bottom.

I started getting into decent food after I got a house in Tuscany, near the British cycling academy's training base. For a cyclist, the area is incredible, with the flats of the basin of Florence, the heights of the Apennines and the small climbs around Chianti.

The thing with depression is you don't realise you have it and even when you do you don't want to realise you have it.

One thing I do get aggravated by is people shouting with frustration if they get pushed and shoved in sprints. I don't push and shove anyone, but I don't care if somebody does it to me.

Crashes are the worst thing because your wounds stick to you, so you are sweating into your road rash all day and when you try to sleep your wounds are sticking to the bed sheets. It is part of the job and we know the risks.

I want to provide the best possible life for my daughter. I want her to be so proud of me. You know, I never rode just for myself. I did it for my team as well. But this feels different. This feels like I'm riding my heart out for her.

You can only pre-plan stuff to a certain degree because there are so many variables - road conditions, weather conditions, mechanicals... You have an idea of whose wheel you want to be on.

At the end of the day I want to be the first rider across that finish line and I'll just find the quickest and easiest way to do it.

Once you can accept that you have a mental illness, that is when you can work on it.

In a sprint you make 100 decisions a second. What if X goes now and Y goes then? Should I take this gap or that one? You have to be sharp. Over time it becomes instinct.

Every rider trains their muscles but few train their brain.

I have a house in a small town in Tuscany where everybody knows and looks out for each other. That's a similar mentality to on the Isle of Man.

If you're on the top for 10 years it's going to seem like you have more crashes that someone on the top for three years. If you don't win as much in your ninth or 10th year it's going seem like you are on your way out.

Since we married, Peta's taken over a lot of my cooking and she's incredible. She'll do different meals for me and the kids, depending on my regime. If I name 10 ingredients she'll change the recipe every day.

But you have to take asthma seriously. People do not realise the stress our bodies go under.

I'm going to do the Commonwealth Games for no other reason than national pride. It's something special getting to ride for the Isle of Man.

I use an inhaler myself and have done since I was 15.

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'm not getting bored with cycling or winning - I love it. But I need to give myself new targets all the time.

The Tour de France is ridiculously hard.

People's brains work differently. The brain is like a muscle and you have to train it, keep it active, keep active in races. I notice if I haven't raced for a while. It's hard to see things clearly so you have to relearn that.

A lot of the riders end up in Monaco, but I don't need to be there for the tax purposes because I'm from the Isle of Man.

I do want to race motorbikes when I retire.

You concentrate just on yourself. I can't wallow in anything, can't worry about what others are doing.

You can believe or you can doubt yourself. It's the difference between a gap being one metre late that you're gonna launch, then it's three seconds and you're sat on the wheel and you're about to lose.

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

Track and road cycling are very different things. It is easy to look at them both as cycling but going from the road to the track is like asking Andy Murray to play squash: yes, it's a racket sport like tennis, but it's not the same.

The beautiful thing about cycling is that it is so accessible and that pleased me when I was younger because you felt like you could almost touch the athletes.

I have to cross the line first. Sometimes you can put it as a fear of losing, but actually it's an addiction to winning.

I learned from BMX and skateboarding how to take a fall.

If you're winning bike races ahead of guys who're older than you then they're going to get upset. When some young guy appears from nowhere, some people who are slower assume they ride dangerously.

It's my job. It's not a hobby, it's how I put food on the table for my family. I have to be on a bike.

Sometimes it can be more tiring with the kids than on the bike but I'm absolutely loving it.

Between 20km and 10km to go, you want the whole team at the front. You don't necessarily want to take control, and the speed will be dictated by how many surges you get from the other teams. You don't want to go so fast they can't come, but you want to be just ahead so you're in control.

It's so ironic that the better you get the easier it becomes to win.

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.

If you're on the top for your sport or 10 years it's going to seem like you've had more knock-backs than someone who has been at the top for three years.

The perception is that I've always made winning look easy. People think it's easy, but they don't see what's behind it, the time away from the family. The days spent climbing, training out in all weather, climbing but trying to keep the speed for the sprint.

I constantly do puzzle books. Smash through them. My iPad's full of them. Logic puzzles. Bridges. Slitherlink.

I'm a fan of motorsport and a fan of McLaren and I was lucky to work with the company on a small scale across my career but to be able to race now with that brand on my jersey, it's pretty special. I still have to rein in my fanboy attitude sometimes.

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.

I'd love to have my achievements recognised and for people to know enough about cycling to understand what my achievements mean.

I realised my whole focus each year is about the Tour de France.

Everybody who rides a motorbike thinks they can ride MotoGP. Anybody who does a Gran Fondo thinks they can do pro cycling. Anyone who drives a Corsa thinks they can do Formula 1.

I'm pretty happy with my career. I just know what I'm capable of.

There's no emotion. I just see the gap and, instinctively, go for it.

Yorkshire is a hard place to ride a bike.

I don't listen to any music when I train - I do it outdoors, and I'm not a fan of iPods on bikes.

I love track racing and I'm proud to be a British cyclist and proud to pull on the jersey to represent my country.

A lot of people in the Isle of Man support me and it makes it all worthwhile when people are interested in what you're doing. I dunno if the word 'famous' is appropriate, but I'm quite well known on the Isle of Man.

For any young rider even competing in the San Remo is one of the biggest things - but to win it is beyond emotion. You can't put it into words.

I always go for broke. It's win or nothing for me.