Stuart O'Grady of course...what a legend! and apparently a nice guy too..the winner of the Paris Roubaix..."THE Hell of the North", a race ridden in part over cobbled roads in the back blocks of northern France . Roads that are normally only traversed by tractors and farm carts, that were marched on by Roman soldiers centuries ago and that now are protected as part of that country's national heritage.
I've just read the quote Stuart's Director sportif tacked up before the race, a quote that I had in front of me at at work when I first started going overseas to compete in the road and track world championships. Its a quote I think of when I have doubts about what I'm setting out to achieve and especially now as more and more people are being made aware of my plans.
Its too long for my quote of the day and is really not just for the day anyhow.. so here it is:
"It is not the critic that counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles. Or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement. And at worst, If he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
— President Theodore Roosevelt, "The Man in the Arena", Paris, 1910
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