- Are you in need of some motivation
to swing your leg over the bike and get pedalling?
Well, here are 10 quotes from famous names the world over
that we think may just do the trick.
(dramatic, sweeping music)
- First up, triple Tour de France winner
and double world road race champion Greg LeMond
tells it just like it is.
"It never gets easier, you just go faster."
Well thanks very much for that, Greg.
But now, some very simple logic from Albert Einstein,
a very clever man, indeed.
"Life is like riding a bicycle.
In order to keep your balance, you must keep moving."
Well, thank you for that, Albert.
But now some uplifting words from Arthur Conan Doyle,
the creator of Sherlock Holmes no less.
"When the spirits are low,
when the day appears dark,
when work becomes monotonous,
when hope hardly seems worth having,
just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road,
without thought on anything but the ride you are taking."
Just be a moment.
Right. And now some wise words from Kristin Armstrong,
three times Olympic gold medalist
and double world TT champion.
"Embrace your sweat.
It is your essence and your emancipation."
Right. Well next up, we have this from 50 Cent,
rapper and hip hop all-rounder,
speaking of the theft of his bike as a child.
"At that age, it's one of the worst things in the world
to wake up and not see your bike where you left it."
(tearful) Oh, Fi'ty, what are you doing to me?
Well now I've composed myself, how about this
from the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Ernest Hemingway,
who had this to say in his own inimitable style.
"It is by riding that bicycle that you learn
the contours of a country best,
since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.
Thus you remember them as they actually are,
while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you,
and you have no such accurate remembrance,
of a country you have driven through,
as you gain by riding a bicycle."
Lovely words there from Ernest.
Now, Miguel Indurain, the softly spoken
five times consecutive winner of the Tour de France no less,
was rather glowing in his praise of sprinters.
"I'm fascinated by the sprinters.
They suffer so much during the race
just to get to the finish,
they hang on for dear life in the climbs,
but then in the final kilometres
they are transformed and do amazing things.
Now it's not their force per se that impresses me,
but rather the renaissance they experience.
Seeing them suffer throughout the race
only to be reborn in the final
is something for fascination."
High praise indeed.
Now comic genius Robin Williams was a real keen cyclist
and had an extensive collection of bikes.
And his motivation was simple.
"My favourite thing to do is to ride a bicycle.
I ride road bikes.
And for me, it's mobile meditation."
Il Campionissimo Fausto Coppi has these uncomplicated
albeit brief words of motivational advice.
"Ride a bike, ride a bike, ride a bike."
True that.
Now our last words of wisdom come from
the greatest cyclist of all time, Eddy Merckx.
"Ride as much or as little,
as long or as short as you feel.
But ride."
Well I hope you've enjoyed and been motivated
by a lot of those gems.
And I'm sure we've left a few out.
Let us know in the comments section below
which ones you think should be in.
And if you've got any of your own, let us know as well.
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Now, for our unwritten rules cycling volume two,
click just down here.
And sticking with rules,
how 'bout clicking just down here
for our top 10 cycling rules, wait for it,
to break.