Was Millar gifted the King of the Mountains?

GeorgeShaw

I'm a newbie, so ignorant of much of what goes on in competitive cycling, but I was wondering if the peloton gifted Millar the KoM jersey, as any couple of riders could have stopped him. After being off the front all day, it would have been a huge effort for him to out-sprint anybody that wanted to challenge him.

I don't want to belittle his efforts, it was a great to watch, but maybe the peloton was giving him a small (and insignificant in the long run) reward for having a good dig, and on his home soil.

exmachina

GeorgeShaw wrote:

I'm a newbie, so ignorant of much of what goes on in competitive cycling, but I was wondering if the peloton gifted Millar the KoM jersey, as any couple of riders could have stopped him. After being off the front all day, it would have been a huge effort for him to out-sprint anybody that wanted to challenge him.

I don't want to belittle his efforts, it was a great to watch, but maybe the peloton was giving him a small (and insignificant in the long run) reward for having a good dig, and on his home soil.

According to his diary he went early on the last hill as he had a bit of energy left, He did have the team helping him. He also seems to be a much maturer rider now.

drenkrom

It's kind of a peloton tradition to let local riders get seen on home soil, so they may have given him a little rope. They let Vansevenant ride off the front in his home town in stage 2. Anyhow, most real contenders don't really care about the dots in the first week, so I doubt they would've chased anybody down seriously.

Eurostar

I don't think Millar invoked the tradition of being allowed out front the way it happened with Vansevenant. He's not from Kent anyway. This only happens when the route goes through a rider's home town. Besides, Millar had to work damn hard to get his 5 minute gap - that was no gift, it was more like suicide. Getting the KOM jersey at this early stage before the KOM comp has really started when we've only had a couple of 4th cat climbs is a bit of a joke to the real climbers. It's only important to minor teams who have no chance to win a jersey overall. They have to achieve something for their sponsors, so the big teams allow them to grab a bit of limelight here and there. For this reason we will see plenty of suicidal attacks from the likes of Agritubel who don't have any star riders. Saunier Duval have lots of stars but none of them are in the Tour! Millar is the best chance they have of glory, and after not shining in the Prologue he's obliged to get out and do something to get the sponsors' names on the telly.

PeteinSQ

The only possible part of the ride that could have been a gift, was when he grabbed second place over the last climb on the front of the peloton. I'm sure other riders could have beaten him but why would they?