I don’t really have much of an opinion of David Millar. I don’t really follow him the least bit. Mainly for the reason that once a guy gets caught doping, especially after winning the World Championships, doped, I don’t pay any more attention to him. It really doesn’t matter to me that he confessed all and proclaimed to be the self appointed anti doping spokesperson for the peloton.
But somehow yesterday, I read an interview from Millar about Conador and Lance. For one thing, I’m not sure why anyone gives David a pulpit to speak, even talking into account that he won the final TT of the Giro last Sunday. But, that aside, I don’t understand this guy’s reasoning and observation skills.
He says, “Does anybody out there seriously doubt that Contador was riding clean in the Giro d’Italia that has just finished? You don’t win the biggest races in the world with such clockwork regularity and comparative ease, and in such style, by not being the supreme talent and clean. In my experience the profile of a doper is always much more erratic and unpredictable.”
Win the biggest races in the world with such clockwork regularity and comparative ease? By not being a supreme talent and clean? What I hate the most about the last two decades of cycling is these grand tours are won with regularity and comparative ease. And nearly none of them were won by riders that were “clean”. What doesn’t David get?
In my experience, which is mainly observing, the profile of a doper is always incredible. Day after day of incredible performances. Big riders that can climb with the best, little riders that all of a sudden can time trial with the big guys. It is not erratic. Not unpredictable. It is totally predictable. They do unbelievable feats day after day, season after season.
Earlier in the article he says something about Lance –“I can’t say definitively if Lance doped or not. Yes, there are all the stories and rumors but I certainly never saw him dope with my own eyes. If he did dope, after all he has said and done, it would be unforgivable.”
His view of Lance seems little harsh, considering David’s background. But, I understand what he means.
Here’s a quote of David from the The Telegraph from last December. “How mad is that?” says Millar shaking his head. “You go down the wrong path mainly because you feel it’s the only way you can win the biggest prizes and you get a bit messed up mentally yet all the time you have it within yourself naturally to perform at levels you hadn’t really dreamed of. Honestly? I have never been fitter and riding better than I was at the end of this 2010 season, at the world championships and the Commonwealth Games. No drugs could have got me to that condition.”
So David thinks that he was fitter and riding better that anytime of his life and that drugs couldn’t have ever gotten him to that point? Maybe he wasn’t using the right drugs properly.
I guess maybe I should just read his new book, ‘Racing through the darkness: the fall and rise of David Millar’ and try to get a handle of his thought process. On second thought, I think he participated in a practice of the sport that seems, in his words, unforgivable, so I think I’ll just skip it.
Kind of wish he would have just kept the scuba thing going instead of becoming a stauch advocate against doping if he is going to keep spewing stupid shit.
In other news Ricco is back.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ricco-registered-with-merdiana-kamen-team
Great insight, and glad you picked up on those strange comparisons. While I have no professional cycling background, as an avid amateur hitting a “magical” day is very far, few and in between. Most seem to be on stupid group rides or when I’m training alone.
To me the biggest reason to dope is to help in recovery so you can train longer and hard, thus increasing your chances of those so few days.
For Contador to do what he did, or for Lance to win 7 in a row, some of them in dominating fashion points to doping and not just being a supreme clean talent…..but what do I know?
Millar is almost obligated to add to the illusion that Contador is clean considering that Garmin pursued Contador so heavily to ride with them back when Astana looked like they were crumbling.
All, I just want to say the Cobra is dead. I’ve moved on from blood transfusions, EPO, pills and other PED’s to old fashion training.
After listening to David, he is right! I was never faster or fitter than when I wasn’t Doping! And being a young, supreme talent, I hope to be like Alberto and win with such great consistency by merely being a clean, supreme talent.
“Staunch advocates against doping” shouldn’t be arguing for “closure”, not at this point, when the sport is still very much under suspicion. It’s only time for closure when the dopers have been driven away from the sport, and when like fraud and abuse have been made so utterly unacceptable as to render those who practice it pariahs whose records are wiped out from the record books. To do so at this point is simply to try to conceal the problem, to sweep it under the rug and forget it, and to have the inevitable return to the old ways of doing business.
He’s David Millar the “BRIT”. His accent alone makes him 10 times more credible than anyone else, right?? Steve, I think you should speak with a British accent, then you you will get velonews and cyclingnews to lick your kneecaps for perspective on the world of cycling!!! That’s the answer!
Good quotes to bring forth. It is amazing to me how hypocritical one can sound when you really pay attention and compare past interviews to present ones. I used to like Millar, I identified with him (pre-bust), but now, how sounds completely full of shit. I would hope that my friends or colleagues would call me out if I sounded like him. As for his book, I have read enough of his quotes and my head is already spinning.
Ha Millar’s accent is funny. He has the brit equivalent of a southern redneck. To a Brit he sounds stupid. So when he says stupid things about AC and LA he sounds even more stupid. Paul Kimmage has said some interesting things about Millar, such as he still talks like a doper.
The perfect example of what Steely Dan described as pretzel logic.
I think a lot of these guys are bitter cause their whole world was turned upside down by their doping convictions while those who did the same exact thing as they did make millions, become internationally famous and are hailed as greatest of all time. Why should some be forced to fall so hard while others live the life of luxury?? Seems like the double standard is starting to get to some, maybe the mob like silence is starting to crack. The thing that pisses me off the most is true greats like Lemond are skewered in all of this.
Yeah, I kinda thought that statement was a little “off”. I still like David Millar, but, yes, the whole former-doper-turned-anti-doping advocate thing is wearing somewhat thin. To be fair though, I think his point of focusing on bike racing (and not alway doping) is a valid one. I mean, that’s what we like, right? Bike racing, I mean.