Tour de France Quotes

But, listen, Eddie Merkyx would have won six Tours if he hadn't been punched.

I think an Olympic medal is the only thing missing from what I can physically achieve as a cyclist. I can't win the Tour de France, but I've pretty much won everything else that I can within my physical realm, so that's the only thing missing.

Second doesn't mean anything in cycling.

If I can win the Tour de France, there is hope for everybody.

Truth is, a triathlete won the Tour de France seven times.

The problem is not with the athletes, but with us. No matter how blatant the drug use may be, we don't stop watching the Tour de France. Maybe we should just turn off the television and get on our own bikes.

It's all well and good having a women's Tour de France - which I think we need and I think we should have. But I think we should slowly build it in and not just go 'Bam!' with three weeks over the same course and same length of time as the men's.

When you're the oldest rider at the Tour de France, you really feel it.

The Tour de France would make a great movie. Drugs, corruption, political chicanery, guys risking their lives - everything you need for a great sports drama.

Creating a top team and being in a position to win the Tour de France will give me a nice feeling. But I know it is not easy to create a top team from zero. You need good riders, good staff, a lot of preparation and, most important, a lot of sponsors.

I never thought we'd catch him, and when I saw he was ready to drop I felt sorry for him. I wanted to show it's not true I'm trying to win it all. My goal is the Tour of Spain.

I think the San Sebastian victory and and my European time trial title, and the second place in the worlds, really changed my life and my career a lot.

I'm lucky that mountian biking wasn't around when I was 20, because I wouldn't have won the Tour de France. It's my kind of sport - hard, individualistic, and not a lot of tactics.

I'm 28, and for the next six or seven years my goal is to try to fight for the yellow jersey. If I can win it once I would be chuffed to bits.

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

I've given gifts in the Tour de France and it's come back to bit me. So no gifts.

I know I'll never feel that sensation of racing and winning again and that took a while to get used to. The Tour was a race I never thought I could lose.

The problem with being a Tour de France winner is you always have that feeling of disappointment if you don't win again. That's the curse of the Tour de France.

To be a part of TT history is a massive achievement. It is one of, if not the greatest races on two wheels, if not on four.

Lance Armstrong did a number of things, and he gave himself cancer.

When you see it from the outside, then you see just how great the Tour de France is.

Sooner or later a rider will emerge who will win more Tours. In every sport we have seen how the records eventually get broken and cycling is no exception.

Unfortunately this is the legacy that has been handed to us by the people before us, people who have won the Tour only to disappoint fans a few years later, if this is part of the process we have to go through to get the sport to the better place, obviously I'm here, I'm doing it.

I just never subscribed to the theory that at age 55, you fall off the face of the earth on the Tour. I always felt that was too young of an age for that.

I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999.