Cycling also offers a sense of independence, of being able to get up and go wherever and whenever you want. That's invaluable.

Cycling is an activity which more and more young people are getting involved with, whether they are using their bikes to get to school or work, socially, or cycling as a sport. Cycling is cheap, it's quick, and it makes you look and feel great!

In the UK cycling was very popular until the end of the 1950's but it really lost out to our love affair with the car. Regaining a culture where cycling is seen as an everyday part of life requires time and effort. Of course in some British towns it never really went away - just look at Oxford and Cambridge. In other places, where the car has been king for many decades, it takes more time.

The finest mode of transport known to man.

Perhaps the most vivid recollection of my youth is that of the local wheelmen, led by my father, stopping at our home to eat pone, sip mint juleps, and flog the field hands. This more than anything cultivated my life-long aversion to bicycles.

I loved running, but all of a sudden everything hurt so much. I started cycling when Zelda was born.

Tens of thousands who could never afford to own, feed and stable a horse, had by this bright invention enjoyed the swiftness of motion which is perhaps the most fascinating feature of material life.

She who succeeds in gaining the mastery of the bicycle will gain the mastery of life.

Why did I come back? I mean, I was really satisfied with the gold medal in Salt Lake City, but at the same time, I thought I was too young to retire. Cycling didn't go well for me in 2003 so I went back to speed skating full time.

I was a hero, and a second afterwards it was all over. Casartelli was dead so what I had achieved was worth nothing.