I rode, and I rode, and I rode. I rode like I had never ridden, punishing my body up and down every hill I could find. I rode when no one else would ride.

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

I wanted to win the Tour de France. And when I won it once, I wanted to do it again, and again, and again, it just kept going. So there wasn't another competitive environment.

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.

Marathons are hard because of the physical pain, the pounding on the muscles, joints, tendons.

I'm not trying to justify myself, or say I'm not sorry, or not contrite.

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