I didn’t feel I had to prove anything more.

Everybody tells me that I never look as if I’m suffering. But, when I watch videotapes of a race, I always remember the pain I had to endure.

To be free and to live a free life – that is the most beautiful thing there is.

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 kilometers they are transformed and do amazing things. 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.

Everybody tells me that I never look as if I'm suffering. But, when I watch videotapes of a race, I always remember the pain I had to endure.

I didn't feel I had to prove anything more.

I did try to win a sixth, but it was not to be.

I have earned enough to take it a bit easier now.

If I had been born with an aggressive character, then maybe my palmares would have been longer.

My strength was that I am more balanced and calmer than most other riders.