“The smallest issues can become the most important things in life and reality slips away.”

“The past is as important as the future, but we only live in the here and now.”

“I'd just killed some of the best riders in the world - and I was clean. I'd taken nothing - no EPO, no cortisone, no testosterone, no painkillers, no caffeine. I had justified to myself that I was ...”

“What an idiot I'd been. What a spoilt brat. What a bloody fool.”

“This place has been my home. They liked me here. Not any more. Now they will look the other way. Now I don't belong.”

“It was very quiet at the hotel, as if there had been a death in the family. When you have quit the Tour, nobody really knows what to say or do. (...) Everything I'd previously achieved meant nothin...”

“Autobiography begins with a sense of being alone. It is an orphan form.”

“Mistakes? That's why they put erasers on pencils.”

“The features of character are carved out of adversity.”

“Steve [sports psychiatrist] had already taught me to try and stop worrying so much about pleasing everyone. We knew that this was one of my most draining flaws and he again used three groups to cla...”

“A tailwind, on the other hand, is one of the most beautiful experiences you can have on a bike. Theres no wind in my ears, so I hear everything around me. The chain purrs sweetly as it pulls the ge...”

“Gliding down the bike path on a Saturday morning, you whip by somebody peddling in the opposite direction and give each other a nod. For a moment it's like "Hey, we're both doing the same thing. Le...”