On the Tour, you live in a bubble - your team, the other riders, the press - so you don't know how it looks from outside.

I still look back and think, 'How did I win the Tour, going day to day under that pressure?'

When you're in the heat of the moment, you need guys you can trust and who have been there for you.

The more time I was spending with the British team, the more of a laugh I was having with them. It's clean, their way of cycling; it's more about what you can produce as an athlete.

It was what I've always wanted, more than anything: to be an Olympic hero rather than a Tour de France star, something I had from childhood.

When you are suddenly standing in front of a bunch of journalists being asked what it's like being a British Olympic legend, it's a bit much to take in.

I came to the conclusion that I'm not going to give up cycling because some people are cheating.

People think sport is life and death - it's not.

Wives are around a lot longer than your sporting years.

I can get obsessive with my training, but it makes you who you are.

I certainly don't hope to live forever, but on the other hand, I'm not reckless.

Pace judgement is everything in the hour record. If you can ride 16.1 or 16.2-second laps constantly for 221 laps, and not go 15.9s or 16.4s, it's keeping it on the line every lap, lap after lap.

How does Ronnie O'Sullivan play snooker the way he does? You can't explain it.

Doing 40-minute track sessions is easy money compared to what we were doing on the Tour. What you used to think was hard now feels like a walk in the park.

I can train harder and put myself through more punishing efforts now than I used to do, having done the Tour de France, and come off the road now.

I always compare myself to the best.

When you see it from the outside, then you see just how great the Tour de France is.

A lot of the bikes are carbon wheels now, and you don't have as good a braking surface on a carbon wheel in the wet weather as you do on the old aluminium rims.

I know the freedom that cycling gives you in terms of being able to just jump on and go.

They do say now in cycling that there's no such thing as bad weather - it's bad clothing.

If you didn't go out every time it was raining, you wouldn't get anything done. So it's a case of making the right clothing choice in terms of waterproof, breathable, warm clothing.

I've been in a lot of pressure situations; I know what I can do.

My mum put herself in £50,000 of debt to service my sporting career. She did everything for me to pursue my dream.

I wanted to put a really good kids' racing bike out there for kids under 14: 10-year-olds, eight-year-olds, right down to balance bikes for kids.

Cycling is a part of my life; it always has been, and I will always continue to cycle. I won't be doing it on the world stage, doing it competitively, but I'll still be out on the weekend with the masses riding around Richmond Park in my Team Sky jersey or whatever. I just love it.

I've always said the Olympics are special to me.

Part of me worries about upsetting people, because we all have perceptions about Olympic champions.

People come up to me in the street and use words like 'legend.'

When I won gold in Athens, I said to my wife Cath, who was pregnant, 'This baby of ours will never want for anything.' There was real pride in that - but it just didn't happen.

I drank because I enjoyed it. I was happy sitting at the end of the bar on my own, reading the paper. I've always enjoyed my own company, and that stems from riding alone. I never trained with anyone - and I still don't. I've always been happy with my own thoughts, and that sums me up as an individual-pursuit rider.

Success is easy to take for granted.

That's the great thing about the Tour. There's always next year and the chance to rectify everything.

I wanted to give an honest insight into a consuming Tour. It's turned out pretty interesting because there aren't many books out there documenting someone's failure.

I ended up in Hampstead for two weeks after the Tour, visiting a hospital every day before my granddad died. But he was more than my granddad. He was like my father.

The changing of the goals helps keep the motivation fresh.

I wish I hadn't said I'm going to retire.

You have got Team Sky leading the way on a professional front. They are quite open and have done everything possible on an anti-doping level.

People always push the boundaries, especially when the rewards are so high financially.

Tom Simpson is like the Bobby Moore of British cycling.

My attitude is that, if you have nothing to hide, why not show it?

In my eyes, I will never be up there with the Sir Steve Redgraves and the Sir Chris Hoys of this world. It's not something that drives me; I just enjoy going to the Olympic Games. Just to be mentioned in the same breath as those people is an honour for me. I don't ever think about those kind of things.

It's an Olympic Games, at the end of the day, and to represent your country at the Olympics is about as good as it gets. Put a gold medal on top of that, and it doesn't ever get any better.

It's still the height of every four years for me, regardless of Tours de France and everything: it's all about the Olympics.