David Millar

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**David Millar**
Personal information

Millar in the 2008 Giro d'Italia
Full name	David Millar
Date of birth	January 4, 1977 (1977-01-04) (age 31)
Country	United Kingdom
Height	1.92 m (6 ft 3+¹⁄₂ in)
Weight	76 kg (170 lb/12.0 st)
Team information
Current team	Slipstream-Chipotle
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Time-trialist
Professional team(s)
1997–2004 2006–2007 2008–	Cofidis Saunier Duval-Prodir Slipstream
Major wins
Tour de France, 3 stages Vuelta a España, 2 stages Danmark Rundt (2001) Tour de Picardie (2003) National 4000 m Pursuit Champion (2006) National Road Race Champion (2007) National Time Trial Champion (2007)
Infobox last updated on:
February 21, 2007

David Millar (born 4 January 1977 in Mtarfa, Malta) is a Scottish road racing cyclist racing for UCI Professional Continental team Slipstream Chipotle presented by H30 as a time-trial specialist.^[1] In 2008 he will ride for Team Slipstream, of which he will be a part-owner.^[2]^[3] Millar has won three Tour de France stages, two Vuelta a España stages, and held the King of the Mountains jersey for a short time during the 2007 Tour de France. He is the 2007 British National Road Race Champion^[4] and a 2007 British time trial champion^[5]. His road championship means he will wear the national championship jersey during stage races in 2008 season with Slipstream.

Millar also won gold for Malta in the 2001 Games of the Small States of Europe [1], held in San Marino.

Shortly before the 2004 Tour de France, Millar confessed to using EPO, for which he was banned for two years.

He is the only British rider to have worn all Tour de France jerseys.^{[citation needed]}

1 Early career
2 Doping
3 See also
4 Post-suspension
5 Career victories
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Early career

Millar burst into the cycling scene as leader of the French team, Cofidis, by winning stage 1 of the 2000 Tour de France. He held the yellow jersey for a few days. He failed to repeat his feat in 2001 due to a crash, and finished fifth in the prologue in 2002. During his attempt to again win the prologue in 2003, his chain dropped off a short distance from the finish due to the absence of a front derailleur, a decision he blamed on directeur sportif Alain Bondue. He claimed Bondue was trying to save a few grams by removing the derailleur. Bondue countered by saying Millar had made his own choice and ignored advice from others . ^[6]

Hopes of winning the Tour de France were fuelled by his stage win in the 2001 Vuelta a España, which saw him in a two-man breakaway with Santiago Botero on a difficult mountain stage. However, Millar has been quoted as saying that if he were to go for a Tour win, it would be only if he were certain of winning, not simply to do well.

Millar is known for straightforward comments, and he quit the Vuelta in 2002 to protest against the route and the course, which he considered dangerous. He had crashed several times and on approaching the finish of the stage, ripped off his race number and quit meters from the line.

[edit] Doping

Millar specialised in the individual time trial, and was preparing for competition in the track events at the 2004 Summer Olympics when police searched his house in June 2004, finding used Epogen syringes. Millar confessed to the use of EPO in 2001 and 2003. He blamed his use of EPO on stress, in particular having failed to win the prologue in the 2003 Tour and having been defeated by Jan Ullrich in the 2001 world time trial championship, despite having raised his arms in the finale in confidence of winning. Ullrich had increased his tempo to make up his time deficit and beat Millar in the final section of the course.

In August 2004 Millar was suspended for two years by British Cycling, stripped of his 2003 world time trial championship rainbow jersey, given a CHF2,000 fine (approx. €1250), and disqualified from the 2003 Dauphiné Libéré and 2001 Vuelta a España races.^[7] He was also fired by the Cofidis team, which dropped out of racing for a while to find team members who were involved in the scandal. In the end several riders and assistants were fired for association with Millar's case. French rider Cédric Vasseur was also a suspect and was forbidden from starting the 2004 Tour de France, but he was later cleared.

Millar failed in an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to reduce the length of the ban, but the court did backdate the suspension to when Millar had confessed, June 24, 2004, which let him start the 2006 Tour de France.^[8]

[edit] See also

List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences

[edit] Post-suspension

Millar in the 2008 Tour of California

Although Millar's two-year suspension ended a week before the start of the 2006 Tour de France, he participated after signing with the Spanish team, Saunier Duval. He finished 17th in the prologue and 11th on the penultimate, time-trial stage. He finished 59th of 139 finishers, 2hr 04:10 behind the winner, Floyd Landis (following doping allegations Landis forfeited the victory, which was passed on to Óscar Pereiro, who finished 57 seconds behind Landis).

In the 2006 Vuelta a España, Millar completed his comeback with a win in Stage 14, a time trial around the city of Cuenca.

On 3 October, Millar won the British 4000 m individual pursuit championship in 4 min 22.32 s at Manchester velodrome.

Millar was taken to court by French authorities in 2006, along with nine other defendants mostly from the Cofidis team. However, the court ruled it was not clear Millar had taken drugs on French territory and charges could not be pursued^[9].

Following the 2007 Tour de France, during which he condemned drugs in cycling, newspapers reported that Millar was to join the US-based Team Slipstream, led by Jonathan Vaughters, which has a pronounced anti-doping policy.^[10]^[11]. After the tour he won both the British road Race championship and the British time trial championship . He finished second in the Eneco Tour, a ProTour stage race, 11 seconds behind Jose Ivan Gutierrez.

2008 with Slipstream started with some success, as Millar finished an overall second in the Tour of California 2008 49 seconds behind Levi Leipheimer.