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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Sincere apologies are for those that make them, not for those to whom they are made.