Favorite pro-cycling quotes of the week, including Boonen, Swift, Phinney, Farrar, and Vande Velde

Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step)

“We were completely frozen. I stopped as a precaution [for my health] but also to make a statement to the [race] organizers. This is no longer Milan-San Remo…They knew in advance that it would snow, they could have prepared another route.” — statement to the Belgian media outlet Sporza after pulling out of the cold and wet Milan-San Remo. (Translated from French.)

Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing Team)

Ben Swift (Team Sky)

“The classics are a different style of race to the grand tours [the three-week Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España stage races]. You can be riding over cobblestones and there’s a lot of fighting for position, whereas a grand tour rider needs to be be lean and strong in the mountains. To ride on the cobbles you need guys like Mat Hayman, Geraint [Thomas], Ian Stannard. Big, strong and powerful riders. A lot can depend on luck – there are so many variables – so it’s not always about the training.” — from an interview about the Classics in The Telegraph.

Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp)

Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) takes first on Stage 1 of the 2012 USA Pro Challenge

“You don’t go into any of the classics at half speed,” he said. “You take every one very seriously, and that’s the beauty of the classics. You come into every one completely fresh, and you can dedicate all your energy to it…”

…But Farrar was also careful to point out that many others have looked good so far this season, and the race is obviously still wide open.

“That’s the thing about one-day races,” he said. “It’s all about having the legs that day and the luck. There’s always an element of surprise to it, even for the riders themselves.” — before Milan-San Remo, thoughts about the race in an interview with Cyclingnews.

Nathan Earle (Huon Salmon-Genesys)

“Five years ago you would never think you could do just Australian racing and then go to a bigger and better team somewhere else but now there’s more of an international audience watching the Australian racing scene. I think it’s possible, that’s the goal.” — Earle in an interview with Cyclingnews prior to the Tour de Taiwan, referring to Australian riders like Nathan Haas and Steele Von Hoff who made the leap from an Australian continental team to a ProTour team.

Christian Vande Velde

Christian Vande Velde celebrates his overall 2012 USA Pro Challenge victory

“I don’t know if that would ever help anything. I believe the helping is what comes from inside. Things we’ve done, things I’ve shown by example, people who looked up to myself and people like [Garmin’s David Millar], seeing that we could get good results — this is what helps and actually works. Whether or not everyone exfoliating themselves and telling what happened 10 or 12 years ago is going to help, I don’t know. The thing that won’t help is someone new coming out every other week for the next year and a half, or three years, until they go all the way back to the 1920s.” — from an interview by Bonny Ford of ESPN about returning from his six month suspension, part of a response to the question, “Do you consider a truth and reconciliation process necessary?”

Andrew Hood, journalist

“While off-the-bike drama sometimes threatens to engulf the sport, Sunday’s raw, nail-biting clash of wheels and will over snowy, icy roads was just the tonic that will help cycling stay on track.” — commentary on Milan-San Remo on Velonews.