I love cycling, but if I could find a way of building something above the streets for cyclists, that would be amazing. We need even more space.
I was six when I saw ‘ET.’ It changed my life. I wasn’t interested in cycling at all before.
At the end of the day, cycling is a business, so we have to be able to offer something to a sponsor, and without exposure, that’s going to be difficult, but that’s where the UCI perhaps has to be a little bit stronger.
I feel very fragile cycling in London, whereas in Berlin there are proper cycle paths everywhere.
The best way for women to get into cycling is to go out in a group, to feel like you’re part of it.
Exercise and fitness will always be part of my life but it does not have to be lifting huge weights; I like yoga, cycling, walking swimming, anything.
It might seem ludicrously simple, but the obvious answer to what to wear on your bike is whatever that helps you enjoy cycling.
My chosen exercise is cycling. I just love it.
I want to be remembered going off the front, not the other way. After winning my seventh king-of-the-mountains title and winning a stage on Bastille Day, I asked myself, ‘What more can I do in cycling?’ I want to go out at the top.
In fact cycling has always been ‘saved’ by judicial investigations and not by the anti-doping controls we put in place. That’s the harsh truth. We have relied on them to clean the sport up.
The growth of cycling is a good thing. But good cycling is responsible cycling.
Cycling into work every day is a brilliant way to add in extra training hours without feeling like you are taking up much time.
Lots of other drivers like cycling, but I’m not so keen. I have some really cool bikes, but I’m just not in love with it like Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso.
Reunion’s ace card is its interior, its natural parks. Its volcanic origins have defined an extraordinary landscape, characterised by high peaks, deep canyons, lush ravines and vast plains, which are ideal for trekking, cycling and water rafting.
I would never have picked up cycling had it not been for my disability because it just wasn’t something I saw. You see someone riding past in their Lycra and it’s normally white, middle-class males and I never would have seen myself in that position, being an elite cyclist.
I used to walk down a street and nobody would notice me. Now, I get stopped all the time; people saying, ‘well done’. It makes me really, really proud to have done my bit to help make cycling a little bit more popular.
The cycling helmet can save your life, but it doesn’t look good and tends to ruin your hair.
There are so many people who have died of cycling, and that didn’t happen when I was racing.
Second doesn’t mean anything in cycling.
That period afterwards, just hating being the winner of the Tour de France, hating cycling, hating the media for asking me questions about Lance Armstrong.
You know the cycling federation in the U.K. did a good job of going around schools and scouting young riders. The Belgian federation is not like that. It is asleep.
Cycling is good for people in all ways: their health, their well-being, and it does no damage to the environment. It can, however, be dangerous, and this has to be addressed.
I love to eat a lot, but I try to eat healthy stuff. Especially when you’re riding, sometimes I get hooked up with the cycling and when you’re riding three, four, five hours, then you can put whatever you want in your body.
Cycling keeps me lean and I need to stay in shape, especially as I still like eating chocolate and ice-cream! I like to go mountain biking too. Running is also good; it’s what we were designed to do as humans, so it comes naturally.
Everybody who rides a motorbike thinks they can ride MotoGP. Anybody who does a Gran Fondo thinks they can do pro cycling. Anyone who drives a Corsa thinks they can do Formula 1.
Cycling is a good school for life. It makes you hard and gives you ambition, but you can never say you’ve arrived.
I was cycling until I was 68. I used to play football, cricket, tennis, table tennis. I was into road walking – heel and toe.
Cycling is a part of my life; it always has been, and I will always continue to cycle. I won’t be doing it on the world stage, doing it competitively, but I’ll still be out on the weekend with the masses riding around Richmond Park in my Team Sky jersey or whatever. I just love it.
Well, now I am retired I am doing a variety of different sports such as cycling and tennis, and I have pulled out my golf clubs and started golf as well.
If you don’t want to hit the gym, go cycling or skipping.
I do yoga almost daily. I try to fit in swimming and cycling when I can.
I loved running, but all of a sudden everything hurt so much. I started cycling when Zelda was born.
We grew up climbing trees, playing outdoors and cycling.
Usually, the great thing about cycling is that anybody can watch it; it’s very accessible.
I like to sit down, relax, have a cup of coffee on the terrace and read a book. I like to travel the world – and I’m lucky to see so much through cycling.
I remember climbing Mont Ventoux at the end of the day, and it was so, so hard. You have already three, four hours in your legs of cycling, and then you have to climb probably the hardest mountain on the course. And then you have to ride back to your car and pack up your stuff.
I think cycling has always had a tradition of being a bit dapper, especially back in the day.
Once you start cycling, the city opens up for you. No longer are you fighting it, hot and frustrated; no longer are you at the mercy of bus drivers, roadworks, decisions made by others and over which you have no control. Believe me, once you’ve tasted this freedom, you’re hooked.
I get asked to comment a lot on inequality in cycling, but for me it has never been an issue. Everything has always been equal on the track, and the male and female riders are all part of the same team, and we all mix freely.
Track and road cycling are very different things. It is easy to look at them both as cycling but going from the road to the track is like asking Andy Murray to play squash: yes, it’s a racket sport like tennis, but it’s not the same.
As I get older, it’s getting more frustrating because I’m starting to think about what I’m going to do after cycling, and I may be pushed to study alongside riding in order to prepare for retirement – all those things the professional blokes don’t really have to think about.
In tennis, you can have a bad set and still win. The part of track cycling that is difficult to find in other sports is that it’s so final; there’s no second chance if you make a mistake.
I’ve been taught by some of the best strength and conditioning coaches in the country, and I’ve learnt that technique for weight training and cycling is very much more strength and less conditioning.
I’ve never been that bothered by numbers; the history of cycling evolves and follows its own course.
I’d love to have my achievements recognised and for people to know enough about cycling to understand what my achievements mean.
I think everyone lifts themselves that little bit extra for the Tour de France, being the pinnacle of our cycling calendar.
I wouldn’t dream of watching motor racing, cycling, or golf – which aren’t truly sports anyway.
I just hope I can inspire young people and get more people into cycling.
In the cycling world I am… okay, it sounds arrogant, but I am pretty high up. And I am a good athlete. But it is not recognised in Ireland.
When lorry drivers come up behind me and I’m cycling, innocently keeping to my side of the road, and they decide because they are so big, and their lorry is so powerful, and they just want to clear me out of the road, and they hoot aggressively, then I do see red a bit. I do.
Decent cycling clothing today is designed with reflective strips or subtle detailing that is visible under streetlights or in car headlights. You’ll find that you can be seen just as well as you would in a builder’s fluorescent vest.
My epiphany came in that police cell: I realised I was about to lose everything and it didn’t bother me, not in the slightest. I’d come to hate cycling because I blamed it for the lie I was living.
Clear skies and clean air must become the new normal. We must re-design our cities, reclaiming the streets for cycling and walking, allowing people to walk along streets unpolluted by traffic.
I enjoy every second I’m in the gym. I love to challenge myself, push myself; obviously there’s a lot of different routines and a lot of different stuff we do – love cycling, and again, it’s part of my lifestyle.
It’s really important for cycling and for women to be on a sporting stage which is in the mainstream and across the board, not just my own sport.
Bike riding is great for your thinking. I can’t say I’ve written an entire tune while cycling, but riding has definitely inspired songwriting ideas.
I do not want to continue cycling until I am 35. I want to make something else out of my life, too. There are other things besides a bike and racing.
Team GB’s success at the Beijing Olympics can, in part, be said to have been made in Manchester. For example, all the cycling medal winners trained at Manchester’s velodrome, the National Cycling Centre.
