Scottish rider re-motivated after superb end of season, might race four more years
With a second place finish in the world time trial championship, a very aggressive third in the Commonwealth Games road race and victory in the Games time trial, David Millar ended the season on a real high. It was arguably the best run of form that he has shown in years and is one that he believes saw him hit even better form than during the periods of time when he used EPO.
Following his arrest in 2004, Millar confessed to using the banned substance at certain points of his career. The time periods involved included September 2003, when he won the world time trial championships in Lisbon, Portugal. He was subsequently disqualified, suspended, and then returned to pro cycling in mid-2006 determined to ride clean for the remainder of his time in the sport.
Millar is a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Athlete Committee and has been outspoken against using banned substances. He’s regarded as a rider reborn, and that’s why hitting his autumn form feels so rewarding to him.
“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,” he told the Telegraph.
"I am not exactly sure where that autumn form came from but, believe me, I have been having a long hard look back on how the season progressed to try and find the clue. When you hit on that kind of form, you want to bottle it up. Was it just freakish, or was there something we could replicate?”
Millar is a rider who has been prone to overtraining in the past, aiming for big goals but at times coming up short due to digging in too deep beforehand. He believes that getting the balance right may have been the key to riding as he did in the worlds and Commonwealth Games.
“My thinking at the moment is that for the first time in a long while in my career, I got a bit selfish,” he admitted. “I am a pretty versatile rider and I pride myself with being a team player so I have ridden all sorts of support roles at Garmin since I joined. I have been delighted to do so; that team spirit at Garmin is what defines the squad.”
He would probably have played the same role once again, except that some bad luck came his way and, by chance, ended up being exactly what he needed. Earlier in the year, Millar took early wins in the time trial at the Three Days of De Panne, the overall classification there and the final stage of the Critérium International, then crashed heavily in the Tour de France and really struggled. He made it to Paris, but had to fight all the way.
“After that, I took three weeks off from the bike altogether to heal. I was really out of shape when I started the Vuelta [a España] which was a bit indulgent of me.
"So basically I used the Vuelta purely for conditioning and although I helped out with the team when I was able to. The Vuelta was basically about me riding myself fit. You don't often get that luxury. There is no substitute for a three week Grand Tour in that respect and, by the time we finished, I was not only firing on all four cylinders but feeling refreshed, having not gone too deep, and ready for anything.”
Millar’s goal for the future will be to try to strike the right balance between work and rest, racing and training. He now has proof that if he gets things right, he can hit very good form indeed. The plan is to try to replicate his build-up to those end of season targets, thus achieving the same form at other times.
Garmin-Cervélo team manager Jonathan Vaughers thinks there is a psychological element as well and with Millar being on a real morale boost after his performances, he thinks more is to come.
“There have been times if you plot the graph of his achievements and form - and of course the two year ban when you could say with some accuracy that he had temporarily fallen out of love with cycling - that something was bugging him. All I can say now is that Dave is clearly madly back in love with the sport again and in a very good place."
That mindset plus the fun he had at last week’s team training camp in the Cayman Islands means that Millar can now see himself competing for another fours seasons, longer than he had previously believed possible.
“At the start of this year I did wonder how long I had left but now I know for sure,” he said. “I can do another two years at least at elite level and really there is no reason why I shouldn’t continue all the way to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. That's my target now and I will only be 37 which isn't actually that old compared to some who have been racing in the peloton recently… [such as] Lance.”