In Italy it's full-on stardom when you're a cyclist - eating in restaurants for free, it's great.

I shave my legs twice a week. It's hard the first time you do it. But I'm very lazy. For a team photo in December I just did the fronts.

Cycling is such a stupid sport. Next time you are in a car travelling at 40mph think about jumping out - naked. That's what it's like when we crash.

If you're not at the front, you're not in the race.

Cycling is based so much on form, on aesthetics, on class - the way you carry yourself on the bike, the sort of technique you have.

I might have changed, but that did not mean the sport had.

Often the best guys are just those that can suffer longer, who don't give up. And it's so easy to give up, when you're on a mountain and it's really hurting. We go through a lot physically.