Talk:Cycling

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 * The bicycle has a soul. If you succeed to love it, it will give you emotions that you will never forget.
 * Mario Cipollini


 * The last thing I'll say for people who don't believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics: I'm sorry for you, I'm sorry you can't dream big, I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. This is one hell of a race, a great sporting event and you should believe. You should believe in these athletes and you should believe in these people. I'm a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live and there are no secrets - this is a sporting event and hard work wins it, so Vive le Tour forever!
 * Lance Armstrong, Podium farewell speech, Tour de France, July 24, 2005


 * The bicycle, surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets.
 * Christopher Morley (from The Romany Stain, New York: Doubleday, Page & co, 1926. Long excerpt from this book found here: )


 * The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine.
 * John Howard (not the Australian Prime Minister.)


 * When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.
 * H.G. Wells


 * This, my first [bicycle] had an intrinsic beauty. And it opened for me an era of all but flying, which roads emptily crossing the airy, gold-gorsy Common enhanced. Nothing since has equalled that birdlike freedom.
 * Elizabeth Bowen, on acquiring a bicycle at age 13 (appears in 2 collections of her essays, "Pictures and conversations" New York, Knopf; Random House 1975, and "The Mulberry Tree: Writings of Elizabeth Bowen." Virago, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986. Reissued by Vintage, 1999, ed. Hermione Lee. First sentence possibly incorrect, needs checked)


 * I'll tell you what I think of bicycling, I think it has done more to emancipate woman than any one thing in the world. I rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives her a feeling of self-reliance and independence the moment she takes her seat; and away she goes, the picture of untrammelled womanhood.
 * Susan B. Anthony (in The Life and Works of Susan B. Anthony by Ida Husted Harper, 1898. Volume II, chapter XLVI. .) Ida Harper said she was quoting an article in the New York World, 2nd February 1896; I've now found a scan of the original article in the fultonhistory.com archive, it was page 10 of that edition . The text of the article (an intervew with byline 'Nellie Bly') was slightly different, here's the full quote:
 * "Let me tell you what I think of bicycling," Miss Anthony said, leaning forward and laying a slender hand on my arm. "I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives a woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. It makes her feel as if she were independent. The moment she takes her seat she knows she can't get into harm unless she gets off her bicycle, and away she goes, the picture of free, untrammelled womanhood".


 * The bicycle is the most civilised conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.
 * Iris Murdoch (apparently p29 of The Red and the Green, if anyone has a copy to check?)


 * Is in the small things we see it. The child's first step, as awesome as an earthquake. The first time you rode a bike, wallowing up the sidewalk.
 * Ann Sexton


 * A bicycle does get you there and more … And there is always the thin edge of danger to keep you alert and comfortably apprehensive. Dogs become dogs again and snap at your raincoat; potholes become personal. And getting there is all the fun.
 * Bill Emerson


 * A bicycle ride is a flight from sadness.
 * James E. Starrs (Google shows this as p36 in "The Noiseless tenor: the bicycle in literature", 1982; don't have a copy to check but a little dubious about the attribution as that is a collection of excerpts, and p36 is too far in to be the introduction)


 * The eye of the hurricane is back in Lance, and the storm is aiming directly for the Ullrich trailer park.
 * Bob Roll


 * Enough with this Sunday stroll . . . let's hurt a little bit.
 * American Flyers


 * The best rides are the ones where you bite off much more than you can chew--and live through it.
 * Doug Bradbury


 * The main thing is to not cut yourself and bleed to death in the tub.
 * Franke Adreu on leg shaving advice


 * Cycling is like church. Many attend, but few understand.
 * Jim Burlant


 * Pain is a big fat creature riding on your back. The farther you pedal, the heavier he feels. The harder you push, the tighter he squeezes your chest. The steeper the climb, the deeper he digs his jagged, sharp claws into your muscles.
 * Scott Martin


 * To be a cyclist is to be a student of pain....at cycling's core lies pain, hard and bitter as the pit inside a juicy peach. It doesn't matter if you're sprinting for an Olympic medal, a town sign, a trailhead, or the rest stop with the homemade brownies. If you never confront pain, you're missing the essence of the sport.
 * Scott Martin


 * Faster, faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death...
 * Hunter S. Thomson