Top 264 Quotes & Sayings by Famous Cyclists - Page 3

But, listen, Eddie Merkyx would have won six Tours if he hadn't been punched.

I could kill Vino for all this doping crap. Strangle him slowly with piano wire just like they do in the Italian gangster movies. I bet I could get Aru to buy the wire.

Suffering for eight hours...the most unpleasant experience I've ever had.

Perhaps the single most important element in mastering the techniques and tactics of racing is experience. But once you have the fundamentals, acquiring the experience is a matter of time.

As I see it, I'm just getting better and better as a rider - physically and mentally. I'm as motivated as I ever was. I enjoy it as much as I ever did. When you're a good rider on a good day, the bike doesn't rattle and bounce. You're smooth. Even if it's rough you can find a way to make the bike float.

I was the strongest during my career, and that helped me a lot, definitely in the beginning, when I needed to race against riders who were much older than me and had the power and the experience. I could beat them with my technique. At a certain moment I not only had the technique but then the power came and the experience, and then you are on the best level that you ever can reach. But then the explosivity starts to go down, you're more afraid, and the technique goes down a bit. But it's OK, because it never goes completely down.

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.

I believe BMX has shaped me into who I am today, so if this journey never would have begun, then who knows the person I would be or what I would be doing with my life.

When you're turning the crankset, you're riding the bike. When you're coasting, you're just along for the ride.

My brother and I are huge fans of foreign horror. Some of the most interesting movies are coming from overseas. I guess if there was one change we'd like to see, it would be more original horror films made by the studio system and less of a reliance on remakes.

Cycling is suffering.

With the broad and powerful swing of the hand which Zola in The Earth gave to his ploughman, L'Auto, journal of ideas and action, is going to fling across France today those reckless and uncouth sowers of energy who are the great professional riders of the world... From Paris to the blue waves of the Mediterranean, from Marseille to Bordeaux, passing along the roseate and dreaming roads sleeping under the sun, across the calm of the fields of the Vendée, following the Loire, which flows on still and silent, our men are going to race madly, unflaggingly.

Refrain from throwing your bicycle in public. It shows poor upbringing

... strong bonds are forged in high emotional temperatures.

In cycling, you can put all your money on one horse.

...the disqualification is unjust, I understand his reaction. You must understand the riders at certain moments (like climbing an 18% hill) they are stressed and they can react rashly.

Kids, man. They'll be the ones to take mountain biking to the next level for us. You just watch

If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on.

Carrick has a big cycling culture and I would compare it to the Isle of Man in the UK.

I always say my three dream wins would be San Remo, Champs-Elysees, and World Championships.

Illegal drug use runs contrary to the image of health depicted by cycling. Distributors of these drugs must be prosecuted more harshly as they are ciminals.

He has a head, two arms, two legs, just as I.

I do want to race motorbikes when I retire.

Riding for QuickStep was a dream of mine from an early age. I couldn't let this opportunity go.

You can't ride the Tour de France on mineral water.

I know I'll never feel that sensation of racing and winning again and that took a while to get used to. The Tour was a race I never thought I could lose.

I know it is possible to win the Tour without taking anything.

I race to win, not to please people.

I was not using the gears I usually do for time trials - it was either hard [gear] to pedal, or really low [gear] to pedal; [that] was something special of today.

My aim is to motivate a human being, to find the champion within

Representing Australia has always been a honour and a privilege, and the older and more experienced I get, the more I enjoy it.

Every rider trains their muscles but few train their brain.

The Champs-Elysees is like the world championships for sprinters.

I like the sprints so much because it's very explosive, very aggressive, and quite physical sometimes as well. On top of that you've got the speed, so it's a big adrenaline rush coming into the sprints all the time. I love that bit!

Imagine someone telling you that by taking a certain drug you could win a single event and be three times richer, famous for life in your country-and it won't hurt anyone. What would you say? There's a wide range of ethics among the riders.

Sometimes all you need is to climb a simple hill, to spend time staring at an empty horizon, to jump into a cold river or sleep under the stars, or perhaps share a whisky at a small country inn in order to remind yourself what matters most to you in life.

I know I am a good rider, but sometimes I don't see myself as a big rider.

On my tenth birthday a bicycle and an atlas coincided as gifts, and a few days later I decided to cycle to India...However, I was a cunning child so I kept my ambition to myself, thus avoiding the tolerant amusement it would have provoked among my elders.

All that matters is to be first across the line.

The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins.

I love downtown Seattle. It's a city that has all of the outdoor activities and is still a very cosmopolitan city.

Portland, Oregon won't build a mile of road without a mile of bike path. You can commute there, even with that weather, all the time.

I never thought we'd catch him, and when I saw he was ready to drop I felt sorry for him. I wanted to show it's not true I'm trying to win it all. My goal is the Tour of Spain.

I have contacts with the Tour de France which keep me close to cycling.

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.

Look, at some point, people have to tell their kids that Santa Claus isn't real. I hate to be the guy to do it, but it's just not real.

It is cycling as a professional sport that represents the problem. It can transform someone into a liar.

To me writing was not a career but a necessity. And so it remains, though I am now, technically, a professional writer. The strength of this inborn desire to write has always baffled me. It is understandable that the really gifted should feel an overwhelming urge to use their gift; but a strong urge with only a slight gift seems almost a genetic mistake.

I believe there are two periods in life, one for the bike, the other for becoming active on one's work.

It never gets easier; you just go faster.

For whatever reason, maybe it's because of my story, but people associate Livestrong with exercise and physical fitness, health and lifestyle choices like that.

Cycling is open to the whole world.

It is funny, I have the ability to win a stage in the Tour de France and I do win races that are the same category, WorldTour.

I always travel with my bike and it has become a little more difficult to do it nowadays, but I stick it in 3,5 by 6-foot case and wheel that thing in.

I want to tell the world of cycling to please join me in telling Pat McQuaid to resign. I have never seen such an abuse of power in cycling's history - resign, Pat, if you love cycling. Resign even if you hate the sport.

If you see that your sport is changing, you need to change yourself and think about it and work with people around you who are really smart in what they do, whether as a coach or as a managing director.

Being injured is quite an awkward situation to be in mentally. Physically, it's quite good to have a bit of a rest, but mentally it's hell.

It's been an incredible few weeks for Emma Pooley, first winning three stages in the Giro Rosa to demonstrate that she's the best climber in the women's peloton, then lining up for La Course - a race she helped to make happen - on the Champs-Elyses. So, it may come as a surprise to hear that she will retire after the Commonwealth Games road race on Sunday.

It was eleven more than neccessary.

Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailleur?