Top 264 Quotes & Sayings by Famous Cyclists

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.

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.

I have always struggled to achieve excellence. One thing that cycling has taught me is that if you can achieve something without a struggle it's not going to be satisfying.

There are two phases of enjoyment in journeying through an unknown country - the eager phase of wondering interest in every detail, and the relaxed phase when one feels no longer an observer of the exotic, but a participator in the rhythm of daily life.

You could go out on a Sunday spin in Carrick-on-Suir, and it's a small town, but you could have 80 riders. That wouldn't even be everyone, in the group. It's just such a good environment to bring guys through, the support and the experience.

As long as I breathe, I attack.

I'm not one of those guys that sits and studies all the stages to see what's gonna be my sort of thing. I sort of play in the moment. Everything is split-second decisions, and I try and make the best out of every possible situation.

With the schedule I created for myself, I saw a lot of times that others copied what I did. And if you copy somebody, you are always too late. And that was always my luck, that I never copied somebody, that I developed something new. And they were always one step behind.

To prepare for a race there is nothing better than a good pheasant, some champagne and a woman.

To me there's no doubt I will be fighting for victory.

I haven't accepted anyone telling me what is or isn't possible and have just kept moving along toward my goals.

You do not need to fly to the other side of the planet to find wilderness and beauty.

I never want to abandon my bike. I see my grandfather, now in his seventies and riding around everywhere. To me that is beautiful. And the bike must always remain a part of my life.

Uphill, downhill, I like that.

Mountain biking helps people become environmentalists. A mountain bike is a vehicle to appreciate the backcountry.

My biggest fear isn't crashing this bike at 85mph and losing my skin - it's sitting in a chair at 90 and thinking 'I wish I'd done more'

Good is something you do, not something you talk about. Some medals are pinned to your soul, not to your jacket.

With psychedelics, if you're fortunate and break through, you understand what is truly of value in life. Material, power, dominance, and territory have no value. People wouldn't fight wars, and the whole system we have currently would fall apart. People would become peaceful, loving citizens, not robots marching around in the dark with all their lights off.

Every race is a war. Every race is a fight. If you don't go into every event with that belief, you will never achieve your goals.

In Mendrisio I felt it - the exhilaration of what the bike has to offer. It's a simple machine that conjures a vast mix of emotions. It can evoke the senses and raise the spirits of people who watch. For those who ride it can seem like the perfect vehicle for transport. For those who race, there's no better sensation than being on top of your gear making mountains feel like flat roads. Cycling throws up plenty of obstacles, unknown territory, high speed split-second considerations. Where to next? What's around the next corner? Who cares? You're flyin'!

There's no such thing as an easy stage.

You can accomplish so much with a strong will. Just do your best, no matter what. Don't let negative thoughts creep in. Don't talk yourself out of anything.

Mental hospitals are great for horror movies because they're already scary even without the horror or supernatural elements. This is a place where you can play with the ideas of one's sanity, what's real and what's not.

Especially with the signing of riders with climbing abilities and the new arrival of Tyler Hamilton, who has the strength and ability to become a great leader for the big tours. All in all, I feel this is a very complete team.

Activity does not necessarily equal progress.

Its hard to measure yourself if nobody is challenging you.

I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five. Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailleur? We are getting soft... As for me, give me a fixed gear!

There's only one rule: The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins. Period. Because you won't die. Even though you feel like you'll die, you don't actually die. Like when you're training, you can always do one more. Always. As tired as you might think you are, you can always, always do one more.

Age and treachery will overcome youth and skill

Let me tell you, though - there’s a huge difference between Flanders and Paris–Roubaix. They’re not even close to the same. In one, the cobbles are used every day by the cars, and kept up, and stuff like that. The other one - it’s completely different … The best I could do would be to describe it like this - they plowed a dirt road, flew over it with a helicopter, and then just dropped a bunch of rocks out of the helicopter! That’s Paris–Roubaix. It’s that bad - it’s ridiculous.

There simply is nothing else like it. And, as a test of physical and mental endurance it has no equal. Other sports may be as intense, as pressurized, as hard for short periods: But the Tour does on day after day after day. It's the only race in the world where you have to get a haircut halfway through.

If you're not terrified, you're not going to win. You have to ride right up to the edge of control and not make any mistakes that cost you time.

Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling.

Nothing's impossible. It's what you decide your limits are.

Sometimes, when we train, we simply have to go out to meet the Man with the Hammer

The true value of communication is often not so much what you say to each other but the simple, powerful fact that you care enough to say something to each other so often.

Cycling isn’t a game, it's a sport. Tough, hard and unpitying, and it requires great sacrifices. One plays football, or tennis, or hockey. One doesn’t play at cycling.

Until mountain biking came along, the bike scene was ruled by a small elite cadre of people who seemed allergic to enthusiasm.

The supporters...It is true that they are dangerous when they run close to the riders. From there to throwing a punch. That is a step.

Unfortunately, satisfaction is linked partly to results

I've been promoted to middle management. I never thought I'd sink so low.

If you knew the pain I had in my legs...what suffering! I couldn't wait to get to the hotel.

I get the sense many people are unsure about their digital media allocation. Even those who believe they are progressive in their thinking wonder if they have got it right.

I'm quite mad by nature, and it's my craziness that has saved me from extinction.

It never gets easier, you just go faster. To put it another way, training is like fighting with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired.

From my conversations with Lance Armstrong and experiences with Lance and the team I am aware that Lance used blood transfusions from 2001 through 2005.

The main thing is to not cut yourself and bleed to death in the tub.

I'm feeling better than expected.

Sunnis consider Shias a pack of unwholesome fanatics and Shias consider Sunnis a gang of lukewarm no-goods - there's nothing like religion for spreading brotherly love!

The more I see of life in these 'undeveloped countries' and of the methods adopted to 'improve' them, the more depressed I become. It seems criminal that the backwardness of a country like Afghanistan should be used as an excuse for America and Russia to have a tug-of-war for possession.

Adventure is just about doing something you’ve never done— doing it with enthusiasm and curiosity: doing something difficult with passion.

At the end of my career, I was, most of the time, a rider who came out of the background and won races just like that. I stayed calm and used my experience. So if you can feel that, if you know how to handle that, then yeah, that's really nice.

I figure the faster I pedal, the faster I can retire.

The physical demands of cycling is that it actually lowers your immune system, and you expose yourself to a tremendous amount of elements - so certain people might get a chronic overload and develop, say, bad asthma.

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.

Real heroes are others, those who have suffered in their soul, in their heart, in their spirit, in their mind, for their loved ones. Those are the real heroes. Im just a cyclist.

I'm more optimistic about cycling right now than I've ever been.

More people should apologize, and more people should accept apologies when sincerely made.

It all happened so fast. Someone slammed the brakes and there was no way to go, just straight into it.

With sports, you get the results back right away. With life, it's not always so black and white.