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David Millar
David Millar (born 4 January 1977) is a Scottish retired professional road racing cyclist. He rode for Cofidis from 1997 to 2004 and Garmin–Sharp from 2008 to 2014. He has won four stages of the Tour de France, five of the Vuelta a España and one stage of the Giro d'Italia. He was the British national road champion and the national time trial champion, both in 2007.
Millar was banned for two years in 2004 after he admitted to taking banned performance-enhancing drugs. Upon his return from his ban, Millar became an anti-doping campaigner, a stance which eventually resulted in journalist Alasdair Fotheringham describing him as an 'elder statesman' of cycling.
Millar is the son of Gordon and Avril Millar, both Scots. His father was a pilot in the Royal Air Force and Millar was born in Mtarfa, Malta, while his father was based there for a three-year tour of duty. His mother worked as a teacher. He has a sister, Frances (Fran) who also works in cycling, currently as the chief executive officer of Team Ineos. The family returned to the United Kingdom, and lived at RAF Kinloss in Scotland before moving to Aylesbury, 60 km north-west of London. His father and mother divorced when Millar was 11 and his father moved to Hong Kong, when he joined the airline Cathay Pacific, which is based there. Millar considers Hong Kong as his home. Millar moved to Hong Kong to join his father when he was 13. He rode in BMX bike races in Hong Kong "and did pretty well." He bought a road bike in 1992 and raced at 6.30 in the morning before the roads began filling with traffic.
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. He completed his A-levels and, having moved back to England to be with his mother in Maidenhead, enrolled at an arts college. He started cycling with a club in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. His mother, Avril, took him there so that he would make new friends and have something to do. At age 18, a week before he was due to start at the arts college, he went to race in France. He joined a club at St-Quentin, in the Picardy region, and won eight races. Five professional teams offered him a contract. He signed with Cyrille Guimard because his team, Cofidis, was based in the area and he knew of Guimard's skill in recognising young talent.
In his first professional season, Millar won the prologue of the Tour de l'Avenir and the competition for the best young rider in the Mi-Août Breton. He profited from his background in 10-mile time-trials in Britain to win the first stage of the 2000 Tour de France, a 16 km time-trial at Futuroscope. He held the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification for a few days. He failed to repeat his feat at Dunkirk in 2001 after puncturing in a bend and crashing. He finished fifth in the prologue in 2002 on a rolling course at Luxembourg. His attempt to win the prologue in central Paris in the centenary Tour of 2003 ended when his chain dropped off 500 m before the finish. He lost by 0.14 s to Brad McGee. Millar had ridden a bike without a front derailleur to save weight. He blamed his directeur sportif, Alain Bondue. "It wasn't a problem with my chainring; it was a problem with my team", he told journalists at the finish. He said Bondue had tried to save a few grams by removing the derailleur. Bondue said he had told Millar to use a front derailleur after other riders had similar problems. Bondue was demoted to logistics manager.
Hopes of winning the Tour de France were fuelled by his stage win in the 2001 Vuelta a España, when he was in a breakaway with Santiago Botero on a mountain stage. Millar won a gold medal for Malta in the 2001 Games of the Small States of Europe, held in San Marino. Millar was selected for the Scotland team for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, but withdrew to compete for Cofidis instead.
In the 2002 Vuelta a España, stage 15 included the ascent of the Alto de l'Angliru in rain. Team cars stalled on the steepest part, some unable to restart because their tires slipped on messages painted by fans. Riders were caught behind them and others had to ride with flat tires because mechanics could not reach them. Millar crashed three times, and protested by handing in his race number a metre from the line, effectively abandoning from the race. The judges ruled he had not finished the stage and he was not reinstated, having already left for his home in Biarritz. He regretted his temper—he had been ninth—and later apologised to his team.
Millar was dining in a restaurant with Dave Brailsford in Bidart, near Biarritz, on 23 June 2004 when he was approached by three plainclothes policemen of the Paris drug squad at 8.25pm. They detained Millar and took his watch, shoelaces, jewellery, keys and phone. After searching his home for two and a half hours they found empty phials of Eprex, a brand of the blood-boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO), and two used syringes. Millar claimed he had been given them as a gift at the Tour of Spain, and that he had taken them to Manchester and used them there. After that he had kept them as a souvenir. The detectives took Millar into custody.
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David Millar
David Millar (born 4 January 1977) is a Scottish retired professional road racing cyclist. He rode for Cofidis from 1997 to 2004 and Garmin–Sharp from 2008 to 2014. He has won four stages of the Tour de France, five of the Vuelta a España and one stage of the Giro d'Italia. He was the British national road champion and the national time trial champion, both in 2007.
Millar was banned for two years in 2004 after he admitted to taking banned performance-enhancing drugs. Upon his return from his ban, Millar became an anti-doping campaigner, a stance which eventually resulted in journalist Alasdair Fotheringham describing him as an 'elder statesman' of cycling.
Millar is the son of Gordon and Avril Millar, both Scots. His father was a pilot in the Royal Air Force and Millar was born in Mtarfa, Malta, while his father was based there for a three-year tour of duty. His mother worked as a teacher. He has a sister, Frances (Fran) who also works in cycling, currently as the chief executive officer of Team Ineos. The family returned to the United Kingdom, and lived at RAF Kinloss in Scotland before moving to Aylesbury, 60 km north-west of London. His father and mother divorced when Millar was 11 and his father moved to Hong Kong, when he joined the airline Cathay Pacific, which is based there. Millar considers Hong Kong as his home. Millar moved to Hong Kong to join his father when he was 13. He rode in BMX bike races in Hong Kong "and did pretty well." He bought a road bike in 1992 and raced at 6.30 in the morning before the roads began filling with traffic.
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. He completed his A-levels and, having moved back to England to be with his mother in Maidenhead, enrolled at an arts college. He started cycling with a club in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. His mother, Avril, took him there so that he would make new friends and have something to do. At age 18, a week before he was due to start at the arts college, he went to race in France. He joined a club at St-Quentin, in the Picardy region, and won eight races. Five professional teams offered him a contract. He signed with Cyrille Guimard because his team, Cofidis, was based in the area and he knew of Guimard's skill in recognising young talent.
In his first professional season, Millar won the prologue of the Tour de l'Avenir and the competition for the best young rider in the Mi-Août Breton. He profited from his background in 10-mile time-trials in Britain to win the first stage of the 2000 Tour de France, a 16 km time-trial at Futuroscope. He held the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification for a few days. He failed to repeat his feat at Dunkirk in 2001 after puncturing in a bend and crashing. He finished fifth in the prologue in 2002 on a rolling course at Luxembourg. His attempt to win the prologue in central Paris in the centenary Tour of 2003 ended when his chain dropped off 500 m before the finish. He lost by 0.14 s to Brad McGee. Millar had ridden a bike without a front derailleur to save weight. He blamed his directeur sportif, Alain Bondue. "It wasn't a problem with my chainring; it was a problem with my team", he told journalists at the finish. He said Bondue had tried to save a few grams by removing the derailleur. Bondue said he had told Millar to use a front derailleur after other riders had similar problems. Bondue was demoted to logistics manager.
Hopes of winning the Tour de France were fuelled by his stage win in the 2001 Vuelta a España, when he was in a breakaway with Santiago Botero on a mountain stage. Millar won a gold medal for Malta in the 2001 Games of the Small States of Europe, held in San Marino. Millar was selected for the Scotland team for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, but withdrew to compete for Cofidis instead.
In the 2002 Vuelta a España, stage 15 included the ascent of the Alto de l'Angliru in rain. Team cars stalled on the steepest part, some unable to restart because their tires slipped on messages painted by fans. Riders were caught behind them and others had to ride with flat tires because mechanics could not reach them. Millar crashed three times, and protested by handing in his race number a metre from the line, effectively abandoning from the race. The judges ruled he had not finished the stage and he was not reinstated, having already left for his home in Biarritz. He regretted his temper—he had been ninth—and later apologised to his team.
Millar was dining in a restaurant with Dave Brailsford in Bidart, near Biarritz, on 23 June 2004 when he was approached by three plainclothes policemen of the Paris drug squad at 8.25pm. They detained Millar and took his watch, shoelaces, jewellery, keys and phone. After searching his home for two and a half hours they found empty phials of Eprex, a brand of the blood-boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO), and two used syringes. Millar claimed he had been given them as a gift at the Tour of Spain, and that he had taken them to Manchester and used them there. After that he had kept them as a souvenir. The detectives took Millar into custody.