How Many Times Do I Have To

I'm Not Trying To Justify Myself, Or Say I'm Not Sorry, Or Not Contrite.

I Want To Die At A Hundred Years Old With An American Flag On My Back And The Star Of Texas On My Helmet, After Screaming Down An Alpine Descent On A Bicycle At 75 Miles Per Hour. I Want To Cross One Last Finish Line As My Wife And My Ten Children Applaud, And Then I Want To Lie Down In A Field Of Those Famous French Sunflowers And Gracefully Expire, The Perfect Contradiction To My Once Anticipated Poignant Early Demise.

I Have Never Doped … I Have Competed As An Endurance Athlete For 25 Years With No Spike In Performance, Passed More Than 500 Drug Tests And Never Failed One.

But, Listen, Eddie Merkyx Would Have Won Six Tours If He Hadn't Been Punched.

The Idea That Anybody Was Forced, Or Pressured, Or Encouraged, Is Not True.