it's not about the bike

"I had learned what it means to ride the Tour De France. It's not about the bike. It's a metaphor for life, not only the longest race in the world but also the most exalting and heartbreaking and potentially tragic. It poses every conceivable element to the rider: unspeakable bad luck, unthinkable beauty, yawning senselessness and above all a great deep self-questioning.



During our lives we're faced with so many different elements as well, we experience so many set backs, and fight trying to stay upright and to have a little hope. The tour is not just a bike race, not at all. It is a test. It tests you physically. It tests you mentally, and it tests you morally."

It's not about the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
by Lance Armstrong, Sally Jenkins