There are so many people who have died of cycling, and that didn't happen when I was racing.

I'm lucky that mountian biking wasn't around when I was 20, because I wouldn't have won the Tour de France. It's my kind of sport - hard, individualistic, and not a lot of tactics.

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

I know too that we Americans like to think of ourselves as cleaner than clean, a healthy nation who would never take anything when a recent poll suggested that 65 per cent of the population would risk dying in 10 years if they would be guaranteed Olympic gold.

You don't suffer, kill yourself and take the risks I take just for money. I love bike racing.

It never gets easier; you just go faster.

Even good people are obliged to deceive.