Lizzie Armitstead Quotes

My big objective this season is to win three gold medals at the Olympics, in the road race, the time trial and the points race.

I promise you, I will never enter a bicycle race.

It's really ironic that I won, because that's not the goal that I had in mind when I went out to skate.

I think everyone lifts themselves that little bit extra for the Tour de France, being the pinnacle of our cycling calendar.

I'm a big tandem bike rider... I've had a tandem bike since I was 12, and I wanna be a competitive tandem bike rider one day.

The Tour de France is a wicked sport in the way that it's not just man against man or woman against woman; it's not flesh against flesh. It's flesh against machine.

When you get into the final week of the Tour de France, it becomes a different kind of race. As the distance and the fatigue really tell, that is when it becomes a proper test of everyone's fitness.

As a British rider, it's a privilege to be able to compete on home roads. The British public have really taken to cycling, and you can see that when the race goes through different towns: the community really gets behind it.

It's fantastic news that the Aviva Women's Tour will continue in 2016.

Finishing on the podium in my first year, I never expected that. It just fell into place.

If you want a lot of endorsements then you'd pick the Olympics. But I've had a passion for the Tour since I was a kid. Let's put it this way: it would be harder to win a stage on the Tour de France so that would mean more. I'd take the Tour win first - but I'm aiming for both.

I am used to coming in second and then all of the sudden finishing in first because nobody expected me to do it. Kind of like David and Goliath, you know. I'm not the giant.

I race pushbikes more than I race motorbikes, but it's not the same.

I'm not getting bored with cycling or winning - I love it. But I need to give myself new targets all the time.

The Tour de France is ridiculously hard.

I was awarded 'Most Aggressive Rider of the Day', generally given to the most spectacular loser of the day.

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.

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.

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

The bicycle riders drank much wine, and were burned and browned by the sun. They did not take the race seriously except among themselves.

It's tough though because of the whole part about getting sponsors and people out to watch women's cycling. I think the only way that women can really work it is that we have to work our way more into these big grand tours that the men have like the Tour de Georgia, Tour of Utah, and Tour of California.

I'm a bit of a thrill-seeker. I used to race mountain bikes when I was a kid. I did the national circuit for two years.

There were no shortcuts, I realized. It took years of racing to build up the mind and body and character until a rider had logged hundreds of races and thousands of miles of road. I wouldn't be able to win a Tour de France until I had enough iron in my legs, and lungs, and brain and Heart.

What's really appealing about women's cycling in America? If you took a poll in the women's peloton, I would bet you that 90% of the women have college degrees, and a lot of them have Masters. The women's peloton is very well educated.

Hate it or love it, the underdogs come out on top.