My greatest point is my persistence... However down I am, I fight until the last ball.

Winning is about heart, not just legs. It's got to be in the right place.

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

The Europeans look down on raising your hands. They don't like the end-zone dance. I think that's unfortunate. That feeling - the finish line, the last couple of meters - is what motivates me.

Athletes don't have much use for poking around in their childhoods, because, introspection doesn't get you anywhere in a race.

I've read that I flew up the hills and mountains of France. But you don't fly up a hill. You struggle slowly and painfully up a hill, and maybe, if you work very hard, you get to the top ahead of everybody else.

Obviously, I come from one background, and the people that design fitness equipment have been doing it for years and years, and they know what works and doesn't work.