Seattle is very similar to Minneapolis. I like the culture; I like the people. I raced a bike and won a national championship on Lake Washington in 1977, so I've had a connection there for a long time.

I'm more optimistic about cycling right now than I've ever been.

If Lance is clean, it is the greatest comeback in the history of sports. If he isn't, it would be the greatest fraud.

The problem with being a Tour de France winner is you always have that feeling of disappointment if you don't win again. That's the curse of the Tour de France.

The most important decision I ever made in my career was to live my life in sports as honestly and ethically as possible. Never having compromised my values allows me to look back on my life with no regrets and feel satisfaction in what I was able to accomplish.

Racing is a very selfish, self-centred, self-glorifying thing. My wife's life for 14 years was centered around me. It was all about me. It was all for my ego.

Even good people are obliged to deceive.

I love downtown Seattle. It's a city that has all of the outdoor activities and is still a very cosmopolitan city.

I rode in a nine-day charity ride recently, averaged 43km a day and still finished in the lead group. I'm 38, not quite finished yet.

When you get second place, you say 'I could have won it here, I could have won it there.' When you win, you never say anything; it's finished.

I've always thought that travelling every day as a journalist on the Tour's got to be harder than actually racing.

I guess I'm a semi-retired person. I work out of my house. I'm a skier in the winter - downhill and cross country. I have a place in Montana for the down-hilling.

If people really want to clean the sport of cycling up, all you have to do is put your money where your mouth is.

More people should apologize, and more people should accept apologies when sincerely made.

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.

Sincere apologies are for those that make them, not for those to whom they are made. Sincere apologies are for those that make them, not for those to whom they are made.

You don't suffer, kill yourself and take the risks I take just for money. I love bike racing.

I want to tell the world of cycling to please join me in telling Pat McQuaid to resign. I have never seen such an abuse of power in cycling's history - resign, Pat, if you love cycling. Resign even if you hate the sport.