David Millar’s description of his epiphany is direct, reflexive, foul-mouthed and self-referential, a bit like Millar himself. I’m married. “I’ve changed as a racer and grown as a man. And I think it’s a testament to Contador not just as an athlete, but as a man, to have handled it the way he did. Unlike modern riders, Millar succeeded in an era when cycling remained a niche sport in Britain and financial support and training help were almost nonexistent. From an early age, he showed an innate talent for time trialling – a skill which would drive his future success in mid-race breakaways and late attacks as well as time trials. Hong Kong is hilly too, so it’s a great place to ride.’, Millar was a keen student of his sport. Winning wouldn’t have changed any of the good stuff I got from that day.”. “Sylvain Chavanel, Stéphane Auge came across, we looked at each other, and thought, we’ve made a big mistake.”. David Millar bought his first road bike aged 15 and when he turned 18 he moved to France to race. Competing in an era in which drug abuse was rife, he had descended into the murky world of doping, a traumatic and dangerous experience which he described in detail in his 2011 autobiography Racing Through The Dark. [d] In the 2006 Vuelta a España, Millar won in stage 14, a time trial around the city of Cuenca. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google, Get an extra 5% off the discounted price of a magazine subscription this weekend with the code SPOOKY5, Giro d’Italia rider suspended after two anti-doping violations on stages 12 and 13, Doctor at centre of Operation Aderlass scandal admits to doping athletes, Two people held by French authorities in Tour de France doping investigation. [22], Millar was dining in a restaurant with Dave Brailsford[26] in Bidart, near Biarritz, on 23 June 2004 when he was approached by three plainclothes policemen of the Paris drug squad at 8.25pm. Manager Jonathan Vaughters has always made it explicit that winning is a bonus, not the aim — riding well, plus publicising the personalities of the riders, being extremely open with the press and gaining good publicity for sponsors through different avenues is what they do. He’s paid for his mistakes, and he wants to prove that he won’t make them again,” says Millar. Maybe he had a horse’s head in his bed.”. But Millar is far more willing to talk about Alberto Contador, and in doing so, opens up about Armstrong. Barcelona was very visceral in that sense — I was focused on the effort, but very aware of my surroundings. It’s not just the doping issue. “I feel for Contador. He still travels the world with his racing bike, team kit and suitcase. If I had, the important memories and motivations wouldn’t be any different. You end up in this eternal, success-driven, materialistic world. We were 35 or 40 kilometres into the stage and we were still a group, so everyone knew it. “I sat there, cold and calculated, and waited. He’s been contrite, and I believe very much that he’s doing it properly now. You’re going to get frozen. De Panne also saw Millar gain his first multi-stage race victory since the 2001 Circuit de la Sarthe. In 2008, he became part-owner and rider for the Garmin Slipstream team who became renowned for their strong anti-doping stance. Yet in races, he appeared to be fuelled by a ferocity and ambition that evoked the courage of the farm labourers and adventurers who raced so unflaggingly in the earliest editions of the Tour de France. Manager Jonathan Vaughters has always made it explicit that winning is a bonus, not the aim – riding well, plus publicising the personalities of the riders, being extremely open with the press and gaining good publicity for sponsors through different avenues is what they do. Millar’s first punishment was the two-year ban. On 9 September 2011, Millar's wife, Nicole, gave birth to their son, Archibald Millar,[71][72] their second son, Harvey Millar, was born on 2 May 2013. That’s a positive of getting caught, and getting out of that spiral I was in. Millar competed in the Tour de France for the first time in 2000 and won the first stage – a 16.5km time trial at Futuroscope (a theme park in Poitiers) to claim the yellow jersey, which he had first seen on television back in Hong Kong. We can do something incredible there. Millar asserted that Garmin had “soul” and “understood the sport”, while Wiggins mockingly wondered on Twitter how Sky could become part of the “fabric of the sport.”. The second was the burden of responsibility of being the public face of an ugly and drawn-out war. Several Cofidis riders and assistants were fired. It was like being a kid. Others are affronted by the outspoken statements he makes about the fight against doping. But this is the paradox of David Millar’s life – nobody could undergo the public humiliation and shame that he had to without ruing the day he ever looked at an EPO-filled needle. Both had been held up as examples of clean transparency, but Armstrong always veered towards talking about Columbia’s “winning model”. But in Millar’s era, riders took the old-school route to the top, racing in amateur ranks in Europe, hoping a pro team would eventually offer them a contract. [29] Police, looking to find out more about the drugs found on Madejak, turned their attention to another rider on the team, Philippe Gaumont, as he arrived at Orly airport on 20 January 2004. The noise was a cacophony. Millar’s attack into Barcelona would have made Lance Armstrong choke on his bidon. This was special. More success followed over the next three years as Millar won additional stages of the Tour in 2002 and 2003, stages of the Vuelta in 2001 and 2003, and the individual time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Canada in 2003. At King George V School he chose mathematics, economics and geography as his A-level, pre-university, examination subjects, then switched to art, graphics and sports studies at his father's suggestion. [16], Millar has claimed that doping gained him 25 seconds in the 2003 world time-trial championship. I knew the road, and I knew they couldn’t keep going as fast as they were. He blamed it on stress, in particular losing the prologue in the 2003 Tour and being beaten by Jan Ullrich in the 2001 world time trial championship. He’s even, God forbid, talking about growing vegetables some time down the line. I had no chance, yet nothing to lose. But I also escaped the pattern I was in before I was even doping, and I’m going to benefit from that for the majority of my life. Then you get bronchitis – you need cortisone – you feel great, it makes you skinny and faster. [30] Vasseur was forbidden to start the 2004 Tour de France but later cleared. “It could start with injectable recoup, vitamins. At the age of 13, he moved to Hong Kong with his father – an airline pilot – after his parents separated, and soon discovered the joy of road cycling. [39] But the suspension cost Millar his job, his income and his house. There’s no way I’d be here now, if none of that stuff had happened, and if I’d continued the linear development I was, on as a young athlete, I wouldn’t have found such happiness. Plus the baggage, and, you’d think, regret. Since his retirement in 2014, Millar has become a television commentator for ITV and BBC and is working on a number of projects, including a role with British Cycling, helping their Senior Academy Riders transition out of the program.
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