Laurent Fignon Quotes

What made it harder to stomach was the fact that the pilot of the helicopter with the television cameras was particularly keen to do his job to the best of his ability by coming as close as he could to get pictures of me, even though he was almost mowing the number off my back with his rotor-blades. Obviously, the turbulence he caused pushed enough wind at me to slow me down a fair bit. Two or three times I came close to crashing and shook my fist at him. Guimard was beside himself with rage. So was I. In normal circumstances, if all the stages had been run off in the usual way, or even with the bare minimum of morality, the time trial would only have been of secondary importance because the race would have been decided well before. And I would have won my first Giro d’Italia in the most logical way possible. Instead of which my chest burned with pain: the pain you feel at injustice.

In life, just as in sport, you must never ever let an opportunity go.

Cuando a Laurent Fignon le diagnostican un cáncer de estómago le pregunta a su médico si el doping ha podido tener algo que ver. El galeno le solicita el listado de lo que ha tomado en sus años, el parisino se lo da, con pelos y señales. El de la batita blanca se descojona. Es un juego de niños, Laurent, lo que me cuentas son chucherías. Fignon sonríe, morirte es jodido, pero haberte provocado la muerte es peor.

Años después, una señora se acerca a Laurent Fignon en un restaurante. Lleva esa cara que se te pone cuando reconoces un rostro famoso, pero no acabas de identificarlo del todo. Entonces avanza una pregunta, tímida, educada: «Usted es el que perdió un Tour por ocho segundos, ¿no?». Y Fignon, que tiene el día irónico, le contesta, media sonrisa: «No, señora, yo soy el que ganó dos Tours».

I always wanted to grab life in both hands. Otherwise, what’s the point of being on this earth?