I've always shied away from computers, the Internet and all that. I'm a bit more traditional, really - pick up a newspaper, pick up a phone.

I've got a EC3-35 Gibson, which is pretty cherished. I've got a vintage Reichenbacker 330 in fireglow, which is the other one I look after and don't let the kids touch.

One of my all-time favourite guitarists is, in fact, a bassist - John Entwistle from The Who. He's one of my all-time favourites, the way he kind of expanded. I mean, he could have been a lead guitarist and been one of the best guitarists in the world. He wasn't even bass player; he was a bass guitarist, and he took the bass to another level.

I was a fan of Lance Armstrong, and I remember watching him win the Worlds in '93 in Oslo.

I think my wife has struggled a bit because of how obsessive I get with what I eat and stuff.

It's difficult, and it's an incredibly fine balance between getting your weight right down and being anorexic.

I don't make predictions. I know what I can do, and I try not to think too far ahead.

I may never get back to the track. The problem was that I was dominating my event, and the winning became slightly boring. I wanted new challenges, and I've got that on the road.

I had a small investment in Twofold, following guidance from my professional advisers. I had, however, claimed no tax relief of any amount in regard to this investment. Given the concerns raised about it, I have now instructed my advisors to withdraw me from the scheme with immediate effect.

If I'm going to Kilburn, I get on a bus.

I take my kids to school. It's what keeps you normal.

Not having my father around has made me a better person.

If I can win the Tour de France, there is hope for everybody.

I always found that the more extreme and the more eccentric I was, that's what would separate me. I always felt that I needed that separation; otherwise, I'd just be like everybody else.

I just felt that if the team is doing seven hours, I'd want to do eight. I'd always need to do more. I knew that would make me better than everybody else.

Things change; your priorities change in life. So I'd never think of riding 100 miles on Christmas Day now, because I've got two kids, and it's selfish.

Everything I achieve affects my family as well, and suddenly, my kids' dad became the most famous man in the country for a couple of weeks.

Sir Wiggo sounds nice.

It's really incredible to win an Olympic Gold in your home city.

I was a bit of a loner at school because I was into what I was into, that sort of scene; that is where the whole mod thing started, when I was 14-15.

I went to see Ocean Colour Scene at Shepherds Bush and and felt part of something. They paved the way for me.

Early Nineties - that was what it was all about: how people dressed on the terraces.

In sport, you just have to take what you can get.

When you get into the final week of the Tour de France, it becomes a different kind of race. As the distance and the fatigue really tell, that is when it becomes a proper test of everyone's fitness.

I said at the start of the race that the Tour is about being good for 21 days, being consistent every day, not having super days and bad days.

You speak to the press at the Tour every day, but most often in a negative sense. Ninety per cent of the questions you are asked in the post-race press conferences are challenging or provocative, so you have to justify yourself; you have to try to give the right answers about every topic across the board.

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.