It Doesn't Get Any Easier; You Just

I Have Always Struggled To Achieve Excellence. One Thing That Cycling Has Taught Me Is That If You Can Achieve Something Without A Struggle, It's Not Going To Be Satisfying.

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 Know Too That We Americans Like To Think Of Ourselves As Cleaner Than Clean, A Healthy Nation Who Would Never Take Anything When A Recent Poll Suggested That 65 Per Cent Of The Population Would Risk Dying In 10 Years If They Would Be Guaranteed Olympic Gold.

I Wanted To Be Seen As A Good Person, And Never Wanted To Let People Down, But I Found It Hard To Handle The Fame Or Adulation. I Didn't Feel Worthy Of It. I Was Ashamed By Who I Thought I Was Because I Felt Partly Responsible [for The Abuse] And I Was Never Able To Enjoy The Stuff I Should Have Been Able To Enjoy. My First Thought When I Won The Tour Was: 'my God, I'm Going To Be Famous', And Then I Thought, 'he's Going To Call'. I Was Always Waiting For That Phone Call. I Lived In Fear That Anyone Would Ever Find Out.

Even Good People Are Obliged To Deceive.