We are much better than we know.

We sped on, across the plains, toward Metz. I hung back, saving myself. It is called the Race of Truth. The early stages separate the strong riders from the weak. Now the weak would be eliminated altogether.

There's no rule, no law, no regulation that says you can't come back. So I have every right to come back.

If there is a defining characteristic of a man as opposed to a boy, maybe it's patience.

There were something like 50 good, arduous climbs around Nice, solid inclines of ten miles or more. The trick was not to climb every once in awhile, but to climb repeatedly. I would do three different climbs in one day, over the course of a six- or seven-hour ride. A 12 mile climb took about an hour, so that tells you what my days were like.

Lance Armstrong is not the biggest fraud in the history of world sport. US Postal was not the most sophisticated doping programme.

I know what happened to cycling from 1999 to 2005. I saw its growth, I saw its expansion.