Favorite quotes from the peloton

[lagartija]

"driest is fastest"

-Jacques Anquetil

 

[zastomito]

"Indurain makes me sick because he's actually a really nice guy. You can't actually work yourself up, there's no hate involved, no anger. He's a really nice bloke and a true champion."

Chris Boardman

 

[ak-zaaf]

"It was Amstel Gold, the winning group was up the road, I think I was second or third group, and I knew we were approaching the finish, but I was just curious how many more kilometers (I'm very Euro now that I've switched to metric) there were remaining in the race. I turned around and asked one of my American cohorts racing along side me how many more K there were, and a certain current Australian world road race champion just flipped out and shouted, 'Why the F*$% do you care how many kilometers are left? The race is over! We're not going to win anyway!' I was shocked. So I told him I was just flippin' wondering, but he didn't like that I was curious. End of conversation."

-Ted King

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

"Ferdy big horse. Ferdy attack. Your boys ready?"

~Ferdinand Kübler (1955 TDF, dropping back to team cars taunting the managers.)

 

[zapata]

And after the ventoux that same tour: "Ferdy's too old. Ferdy killed himself on ventoux".

 

[issoisso]

"Ferdy looks after his money. He never bought a car. He always took the train. If there was a fourth class, he would've taken it" - Charly Gaul

 

[zapata]

He! Ferdy was a proper cyclist. Why would a cyclist want a car, anyway?

 

[kurtinsc]

Thanks for this being brought back... my first read of it. There are some GREAT ones in there.

Here are some:

“I'm thinking about it, ... I'm thinking it's the best way to **** [the French] off.”
-Lance, talking about returning to cycling after retirement.

“A boo is a lot louder than a cheer. If you have 10 people cheering and one person booing, all you hear is the booing.”
-Lance

"If I had been born with an aggressive character, then maybe my palmares would have been longer."
-Indurain

"Crashing is better than eating right. Eating right makes you feel good about yourself. This is the last dang thing you want. You want to feel absolutely ****bag about yourself. Your self-esteem should be lower than a snake's belly at the bottom of a Deep South penitentiary septic tank.

When you have the appropriate base level of self-esteem, you'll want to inflict the grinding horror of your mind upon all around you. Appeasing the torments of your mind by ripping people's legs off in a bike race so you can be seen kissing the posium dolls is the best path. Eating right is bettor suited to actresses who've guzled so many lies getting movie roles that their digestive enzymes have been vaporized.

Now, crashing, on the other hand, gives you scar tissue, and scar tissue tells a story no idiotic tribal barbwire tattoos ever will. And as the stories of your scars are retold, you'll get hungry for sour mash and pork rinds. It is almost impossible to eat a macrobiotic salad while picking at your scabs and describing your ***-over-tits, auger-into-the-gravel-pile-moving-into-sprint-postion in the last corner. Self-hate propels the bicycle faster than all the 30/30/40 ratio flim-flam, phin-phen scam artists combined."
-Bob Roll

"It feels great to have this win, but it's not like it saves my season or anything. It's me with something to prove time and time again... that I am Dave Zabriskie!"
-I'll let you guess

Dave Zabriskie interviewing Alessandro Petacchi:

DZ: Could I ask you a question?
AP: Yes.
DZ: Do you like Star Wars?
AP: Star Wars?
DZ: The movies.
AP: Yes.
DZ: Thank you.

 

[Tibber]

Another from DZ

"Proper MAINTAINTANANCE of the perineal area is essential during high level training and racing. Nothing can ruin stage race success faster than an infected saddle sore."
--Dave Zabriskie

 

[issoisso]

"I thought of it while riding my bike" - Einstein on the theory of relativity

 

[auscyclefan94]

"Alessandro Valverde is making a fly for the line" -Phil Liggett
"Vino has come back from a charge of Blood Changing" -PL

 

[CentralCaliBike]

I dont want to single out the French, but, Its not just the French that hate the USA. Its most of Europe, the middle east... erm actually most of the planet lol.

I wonder, does this create a sense of us against them?

 

[mortand]

"I'm a pretty complete rider - I go slow on every type of terrain"

- Matteo Bono

 

[Kingsley A]

View Post
I dont want to single out the French, but, Its not just the French that hate the USA. Its most of Europe, the middle east... erm actually most of the planet lol.

I wonder, does this create a sense of us against them?

TBF, I think most of the Middle East hates most of Europe too.

And I think a significant proportion of Europe (including the French) just see the US as their petulant teenage cousin who they hope will grow out of it soon

No offence to any nation intended; just trying to do my John Stewart-esque attempt at global peace

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

Not a place to express hate of nations, make your own thread for that. If you have a quote to share that would be great.

Stay on topic please

 

[Hugh Januss]

TBF, I think most of the Middle East hates most of Europe too.

And I think a significant proportion of Europe (including the French) just see the US as their petulant teenage cousin who they hope will grow out of it soon

No offence to any nation intended; just trying to do my John Stewart-esque attempt at global peace

Various parts of the Middle East hate other parts of the Middle East as well, so the rest of us should not take it personally.

 

[Anonymous]

"Anything is possible. You can be told that you have a 90-percent chance or a 50-percent chance or a 1-percent chance, but you have to believe, and you have to fight"

Lance Armstrong

 

[Anonymous]

"To all the cynics, I'm sorry for you, ... I'm sorry you can't believe in miracles. This is a great sporting event and hard work wins it."

Lance Armstrong

 

[Kingsley A]

Various parts of the Middle East hate other parts of the Middle East as well, so the rest of us should not take it personally.

Post was intended as 90% humour 10% observation and comment on the interchange I quoted.

Apologies if I have offended anyone or degraded this thread with my flippant comment. Especially as it is a thread I have very much enjoyed and hope continues on topic.

 

[yetanothergreenworld]

“I'm thinking about it, ... I'm thinking it's the best way to **** [the French] off.”
-Lance, talking about returning to cycling after retirement.

Of course, Armstrong is arguably less popular in Germany than he is in France . . . But he goes out of his way to play the anti-French card because he knows it appeals to his U.S. fan base, which is why I can't wait for his fan base to go away shortly after he does.

 

[kurtinsc]

“I'm thinking about it, ... I'm thinking it's the best way to **** [the French] off.”
-Lance, talking about returning to cycling after retirement.

Of course, Armstrong is arguably less popular in Germany than he is in France . . . But he goes out of his way to play the anti-French card because he knows it appeals to his U.S. fan base, which is why I can't wait for his fan base to go away shortly after he does.

In general, it's not a good thing for cycling in general if the US fanbase goes away. Cycling will survive of course, but there's more money in it from sponsors when US interest is high. We buy a lot of crap. Sponsors like viewers who buy a lot of crap to buy their crap.

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

Overheard at a CX race this weekend from a random racer.

"Is this the beer lap?"

 

[kloftus1044]

Overheard at a CX race this weekend from a random racer.

"Is this the beer lap?"

That could have been anyone! There are a lot of good sound-bites and quotes at CX races.

One of my favorites from the race announcer during one of the men's cat-4 races: "he's all over his bike like a hobo on a ham sandwich."

 

[ak-zaaf]

up up up...

 

[Cobblestoned]

"You'd see him there, attacking, with that smile on his face, and you couldn't tell whether he was tired, faking it, or laughing at you."

Claudio Chiappucci commenting on Miguel Indurain

Same goes for Basso --->