Un/Inspirational and ironic Lance Armstrong bicycle quotes
Anyone
The difference between me and Lance Armstrong is that I still have a chance to win the Tour de France.
Update: I did try to give Lance a chance to explain himself. I met with one of his teammates at RAGBRAI who promised to pass along my message. Unfortunately, Lance rode by too quickly for me to catch up. And then I wrote a follow-up letter and sent him a copy of my book (with the touching story mentioned below) but I still haven’t heard anything.
Editor’s note: I’m sorry to have demoted Lance Armstrong’s quote to this secondary page, but here is why. For me, he was always an inspiration, so I’m as heartbroken as anyone. If you’ve found this page, you probably know the story: he had all 7 of his Tour de France titles revoked for doping. Recently, I met his crew and later saw him ride past me during RAGBRAI. I wished could have met him, because I would have liked to share a heart-warming story in my book Falling Uphill about a woman with cancer that I met. I gave her Lance’s book, “It’s not about the bike,” which talks about his battle with cancer. The woman said it gave her hope. Nonetheless, in fairness, I felt obligated to demote Lance’s quotes. You be the judge. As for me, I like to think if I were in his shoes that I’d understand. There are a lot of things I wish I had never done but seemed like a good idea at the time. And it does seem the Tour de France organizers needed a scapegoat. Even some of his rivals, like Jan Ulrich, believe his wins should be reinstated because he would still have been the best had the playing field been level, meaning that everyone cheated, so Lance’s actions did level the playing field. The worst part was all the lies.
In Armstrong’s defense, he was trying to level an unlevel playing field. As Jacques Anquetil was famous for saying:
I dope myself. Everyone dopes himself. Those who claim they don’t are liars. For 50 years, bike racers have been taking stimulants.
Inspirational quotes from before Lance’s fall from grace
Despite having lied to his fans for years, losing his Tour de France wins, all his sponsors and his street cred, Lance still inspires many. I do believe the following:
Hard work, sacrifice and focus will never show up in tests.
Lance Armstrong
It’s not like we all just went to Saint-Tropez every day and sipped rosé and then just showed up to the Tour de France and won.*
Lance Armstrong
If you worried about falling off the bike, you’d never get on.
~
Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually, it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. That surrender, even the smallest act of giving up, stays with me. So when I feel like quitting, I ask myself, which would I rather live with?
~ It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life.
Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.
~
Cycling is so hard, the suffering is so intense, that it’s absolutely cleansing. The pain is so deep and strong that a curtain descends over your brain…. Once, someone asked me what pleasure I took in riding for so long. ‘Pleasure?’ I said. ‘I don’t understand the question. I didn’t do it for the pleasure; I did it for the pain.’
Ironic quotes from Lance Armstrong
Inspirational quotes that, in retrospect, have become ironic and disappointing.
Anyone who imagines they can work alone winds up surrounded by nothing but rivals, without companions. The fact is, no one ascends alone.
~ It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life.
Chasing records doesn’t keep me on my bike. Happiness does.
~ , after his third Tour de France victory.
I figure the faster I pedal, the faster I can retire.
~
Two things scare me. The first is getting hurt. But that’s not nearly as scary as the second, which is losing.
~ Playboy, June 2005.
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.
~
For most of my life, I had operated under a simple schematic of winning and losing, but cancer was teaching me a tolerance for ambiguities.
~ It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life.
Perhaps the most ironic quote ever
It’s not about the bike.
Lance Armstrong
Editor’s Note: I believe any quotation from Lance Armstrong’s book, The New York Times #1 Bestseller, “It’s Not About the Bike,” should be viewed with skepticism. In light of the scandal, I have little doubt that Lance Armstrong’s ghostwriter glorified his words as well as his actions. It’s unfortunate because I actually read and enjoyed the book. In fact, during my world travels by bicycle, I constantly reminded myself, “It’s not about the bike.” It was a mantra that reminded me it was the journey not the destination. The consolation is that Lance Armstrong is, as the cover says, just a human being after all.
It’s a good book if you believe what it says. Available on Amazon.*
Un-inspirational quotes from Lance Armstrong
Denials
Lance has repeated statements like the ones below too many times to count.
This is my body, and I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it, study it, tweak it; listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I am on. What am I on? I am on my bike busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?
. Nike commercial, 2001.
If I had a dollar for every time somebody yelled, ‘dopé, dopé,’ I’d be a rich man.
~
I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance-enhancing drugs.
~ 2005.
I went in and just looked up the definition of cheat and the definition of cheat is to gain an advantage on a rival or foe that they don’t have. I didn’t view it that way.
~
Extraordinary allegations require extraordinary evidence.
~
Admissions of guilt and apologies
Lance Armstrong looking contrite during an Interview with Oprah Winfrey about the scandal. Credit: OWN. Disclaimer.
Lance was rather unapologetic at first but eventually seemed to realize the impact that his actions had on the sport and his fans.
There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say: ‘Enough is enough.’ For me, that time is now.
~ August 2012 when he announced that he would no longer fight the doping charges brought by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), effectively accepting the sanctions, including the stripping of his seven Tour de France titles.
My punishment is a thousand times bigger than the crime I committed.
~
I didn’t invent the culture, but I didn’t try to stop the culture. And that’s my mistake.
~
I took performance-enhancing drugs for the greater part of my cycling career.
~ 2013 Lance Armstrong in Oprah Winfrey interview.
I’m not the most believable guy in the world right now.
. In response to Oprah about whether he pressured other cyclists to dope.
The ultimate crime is the betrayal of these people who support me and believed in me, and they got lied to.
~
It is my hope that revealing the truth will lead to a bright, dope-free future for the sport I love.
~
