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Cycling was the sport of our family - we did it all the time, five days a week.

Cycling is based so much on form, on aesthetics, on class - the way you carry yourself on the bike, the sort of technique you have.

As a kid growing up - I can see now - it didn't matter what I did, as long as it was something I could be really good at. Cycling just happened to be the opportunity that came along.

I have the impression that cycling is no longer a game but rather an employment... a job.

Cycling as a whole is totally underestimated.

There are so many people who have died of cycling, and that didn't happen when I was racing.

I used to spend all my school holidays cycling around, so all this training has made me feel like a kid again.

Cycling is open to the whole world.

I was always cycling for my dad. Then the coaches got bigger, and my results got better. Suddenly, the responsibility grows, and I'm doing it for somebody else, I'm doing it for a programme; I'm doing it for the country. I'm doing it for, like, everybody.

Don't get me wrong: there are some fantastic people who work at British Cycling who kept me together, who were there when I was struggling with it all. They were walking the same tightrope in many ways, because if you do speak up, your days are numbered.