Top 87 Quotes & Sayings by Manx Authors - Page 2

I think any professional athlete who says they stick to a strict diet and weigh their food out every time is either lying or they're sick.

The Belgian people, they're so happy.

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.

It's been reported a lot that I've had two bouts of mononucleosis. The evidence suggests it wasn't two bouts, it was the same bout. I never got over it the first time. That's hard to explain to people. It makes it look like I'm not very resilient, whereas it was completely mismanaged.

What keeps athletes going is the optimism we are going to be able to compete again.

I never think: 'If I crash, I'm going to hurt myself.' I might think: 'If I crash, I'm not going to win.' Everything's about that finish line.

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.

Cycling is unique in that in any other sport I'd be in a different weight category or discipline. What I do is a different sport to what Chris Froome does.

If I do a circuit, then after three laps I could tell you where all the potholes were.

The way I dig in to push myself through mountain climbs is totally psychological. I'm not designed to do that stuff. It's mind over matter.

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.

I'm 100% a sprinter... an old school one, not one of these new guys that can climb and sprint.

Lance Armstrong won seven Tours, that's 147 days of racing, and he never had a puncture or a mechanical. You can really minimise your chances of a mistake if you do everything right.

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.

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 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.

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.

It's incredible the muscle damage you do in a sprint. You don't see it after the line, because we're smiling. But if you see the tent that we're in straight afterwards, you just collapse.

I have a fondness for junk food - it still calls me, sometimes.

When you're a young pro from an undeveloped country in road cycling then you're on the back foot.

I don't know why, but despite winning how many world championships, how many Tour stages, and being 31 years old, some people still thought I had to prove myself, you know. So I had to do the Track Worlds to try to prove myself.

I want to win wherever I race, the team's invested a lot in me.

Psychological edge is massive in sprinting.

If you don't enjoy something you can't keep at it. That's the thing that sticks with me.

I don't like being in London too long, because everybody's just looking straight forward, at nobody else. That freaks me out a little bit.

Second doesn't mean anything in cycling.

I need to be on a bike, mentally as much as physically.