The Quotable Cyclist

"A delightful Bartlett’s of the bicycle."—Outside

Many things have been said about cycling, from the ridiculous to the sublime. The sport is full of outspoken characters, and they have provided us a treasure trove of quips, quotes, curses, profundity, and humor.

The Quotable Cyclist gathers the best of these into one indispensable volume. This book will provide any cyclist with unending pleasure, and inspiration to get out on the bike. It features quotes from such superstars as Lance Armstrong and Greg Lemond, and from civilians like John F. Kennedy, Mark Twain, and Albert Einstein. With chapters on road biking, mountain biking, winning, losing, descending, crashing, love and hate, The Quotable Cyclist will delight anyone who ever rode a bike.


A few samples:



“Get a bicycle. You will not regret it if you live.” —Mark Twain 


“If you brake, you don’t win.” —Mario Cipollini 


“Nothing compares with the simple pleasure of a bike ride.” —John F. Kennedy 


“The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets.” —Christoper Morley 


“Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia.” —H. G. Wells 


 “It is easy to be a holy man on a mountain bike.” —Mark W. Matson 


“There is no room in the Tour for the sick or the weak.” —Laurent Jalabert 


“Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling.” —James E. Starrs 


“As long as I breathe, I attack.” —Bernard Hinault 


“Ride like water.” —Paul Adkins 


“Cyclists worship legs.” —Nelson Pena 


“Why should anyone steal a watch when he could steal a bicycle?” —Flann O’Brien 


“The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine.” —John Howard 


“Bicycles have no walls.” —Paul Cornish