Well, you better ride like you stole something 'cause you are about to win a stage in the Tour de Fance.

We each cope differently with the specter of our deaths. Some people deny it. Some pray. Some numb themselves with tequila. I was tempted to do a little of each of those things. But I think we are supposed to try to face it straightforwardly, armed with nothing but courage.

Pain is temporary. Eventually it will subside. If I quit, however, the surrender stays with me.

There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say: 'Enough is enough.'

I am just coming into my best years. This year I did new things; stretching and abdominal work.

I tried to control the narrative.

But the fact is that I wouldn't have won even a single Tour de France without the lesson of illness. What it teaches is this: pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.