I thought I knew what fear was, until I heard the words 'You have cancer'.

It gave me a chance to re-evaluate my life and my career. Cancer certainly gives things a new perspective. I would not have won the Tour de France if I had not had cancer. It gave me new strength and focus.

Life to me is a series of false limits and my challenge as an athlete is to explore those limits

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.

If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on.

I got the three things I wanted. I did my job, I worked hard in the process, and I cherish the memories, and they're mine.

For most of my life I had operated under a simple schematic of winning and losing, but cancer was teaching me a tolerance for ambiguities.