David Millar on doping

pbt150

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/8785907.stm

Very honest interview in my mind, if there's more to the interview I wish I could see it. Seems like he's quite an intelligent guy who went into the sport very naive about how bad things were.

takethehighroad

Does he have an autobiography?

I'm going to get Brad's and Mark's, if he's done one it will be a good read I think

shockedsoshocked

Pinch of salt time?

giant_man

Bloody hypocrite if you ask me. Should have been banned for life the first time around ...

iainf72

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

I'm going to get Brad's and Mark's, if he's done one it will be a good read I think

Can I give you some honest advice? Put your money into a bag and throw it into the river rather than buy those 2.

Absolute stinkers IMO.

takethehighroad

Sound, I might use the excellent facilities at my local library

iainf72

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

Sound, I might use the excellent facilities at my local library

Good call. If I can find my Cav book, you're welcome to it. Actually, if you want the Wiggins book you can have that too

I'll have a look this weekend and can stick 'em in the post next week.

dennisn

pbt150 wrote:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/8785907.stm

Very honest interview in my mind, if there's more to the interview I wish I could see it. Seems like he's quite an intelligent guy who went into the sport very naive about how bad things were.

I have no clue why, and this is way off subject, but your talking about intelligence and being naive reminded me of watching Pro Wrestling when I was around 8 or 9 years old.
I didn't believe for a minute that it was real, but my mother sure did. To this day I don't understand that.
Sorry about the hijack. I guess I just had to tell someone.

BikingBernie

And yet Millar would rather see the Omerta persist than see Armstrong brought to account...

Garmin-Transitions' David Millar, who came back in 2006 from a two-year doping ban after admitting his guilt, is furious at Landis.

"He's reached the end of the road and I just find it disgusting," said Millar from his home training base in Girona, Spain. "He's a liar and a cheat and he has nothing left in cycling so he just wants to burn the house down.

http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_15175682?

Philip S

I don't think that's what Millar's getting out with in that interview, BB.

It goes on:
After Landis' ban four years ago, Millar said he tried calling him to give advice on how to return to the sport. He never received a return call.

"If he had stood up and manned up four years ago, he'd be racing the Tour de France now," Millar said. "He'd have a different book out. He'd have not lost a penny. He'd be admired by young people. He would have a different life ahead of him. He'd be in a decent mental state. He'd be sober.

"And he'd be married."

His point is more that had Landis come clean when he was caught he could have had a real effect on cycling, but his year's of denial have undermined his credibility.

Hopefully Millar's wrong on that one, and the Feds will find whatever truth is out is there...

BikingBernie

Philip S wrote:

His point is more that had Landis come clean when he was caught he could have had a real effect on cycling, but his year's of denial have undermined his credibility.

Nothing Millar has said suggest that he would have been any happier about Landis 'burning the house down' back in 2006. Rather the impression is he thinks Landis should have admitted that he doped but beyond that kept his mouth shut, 'served his time' and the rejoined the whole circus, just as it was before.

dennisn

Philip S wrote:

I don't think that's what Millar's getting out with in that interview, BB.

It goes on:
After Landis' ban four years ago, Millar said he tried calling him to give advice on how to return to the sport. He never received a return call.

"If he had stood up and manned up four years ago, he'd be racing the Tour de France now," Millar said. "He'd have a different book out. He'd have not lost a penny. He'd be admired by young people. He would have a different life ahead of him. He'd be in a decent mental state. He'd be sober.

"And he'd be married."

His point is more that had Landis come clean when he was caught he could have had a real effect on cycling, but his year's of denial have undermined his credibility.

Hopefully Millar's wrong on that one, and the Feds will find whatever truth is out is there...

I suppose I can see FL's point of view. He's young, brash, owns the world after TDF win.
"I'm gonna fight this and win". "No ones taking away my win." Once you start thinking like that it's got to be tough to, even figure out HOW, to make a U-turn. It seems simple to us. Just "confess", but we didn't just win one of the biggest prizes in sports and become an instant hero(if you will). He probably couldn't see past tomorrow and definitely didn't see the bigger picture, i.e. take your medicine and come back after your ban is served and ride again.

Dgh

Wiggins' book isn't great, and I wouldn't expect too much of Cav's, either.

I know he's a trackie, but Hoy's isn't bad.

As for Millar, it's a good interview, and he could have given Landis good advice after his positive test.

I wouldn't be as harsh as some re his stance on Landis. It's true that Landis' credibility is, to put it mildly, questionable, and LA and Millar are friends. I think it's right that pas dopers who 'fess up, tell how they did it and come back clean should be welcomed back into the sport.

I also suspect David Millar will, eventually, produce a far more interesting book than many pro cyclists could.

Kléber

Dgh wrote:

I also suspect David Millar will, eventually, produce a far more interesting book than many pro cyclists could.

Yes, there's a lot more to talk about, including interests off the bike. Plus he might have a say on the writing or even write it himself.

Wiggo and Cav's books read like the were ghostwritten in a hurry. But I haven't read them, scanning them in WH Smiths was enough to convince me to hold on to my cash.

grantus

MIllar's comments on Landis suggest to me what his true colours are - I was quite disappointed to read what he said

pomtarr

Re: David Millar autobiography question, this from Amazon:

Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar by David Millar (Hardcover - 16 Jun 2011)
Buy new: £18.99 £14.24
Available for pre-order
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery.

Long way off but I suppose you've got to have something to do while those ribs heal...
Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Racing-Through-Dark-David-Millar/dp/1409114945/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279271471&sr=8-1
He's also written an introduction to the latest edition of Tom Simpson's book; Cycling is My Life.

simon_e

Dgh wrote:

I also suspect David Millar will, eventually, produce a far more interesting book than many pro cyclists could.

Would surely be worth reading. He trains with Michael Barry, so if he gets his traininer partner to help write it he'd be well and truly sorted. Hopefully he'd write about stuff that he's not currently in a position to say.

I'd suggest people shouldn't try too hard to read too much into his comments about Landis. Whenever I see Millar quoted on here there are always some trying to make inferences. They may have some truth to them but to me it looks more like attempted character assassination.

That picture of him shaking hands with Lance earlier this year (AToC? Can't find it just now) could be read in a number of ways, though I can't help thinking that's an uncomfortable grimace on Millar's face. Or am I reading something into it that's not there?

BikingBernie

Simon E wrote:

I'd suggest people shouldn't try too hard to read too much into his comments about Landis.

There is no need to 'read' anything into Millar's comments regarding Landis. His position is quite clear and is very disappointing. What has been said hardly amounts to an attempted 'character assassination' either!

schlepcycling

giant mancp wrote:

Bloody hypocrite if you ask me. Should have been banned for life the first time around ...

+1

DaveyL

Outstanding, yet more cherry picking from "Bernie", followed by a load of conjecture to fit things into his world view. You're having a worse Tour than Lance!

paulcuthbert

Quelle surprise - BB pops up in a doping thread

BikingBernie

paulcuthbert wrote:

Quelle surprise - BB pops up in a doping thread

Quelle surprise, Paul Cuthbert pops up in a thread to say absolutely nothing of substance or consequence.

petejuk

I get the sense that Landis' incriminations reach wider than what we think. Millar's comments a la Denverpost certainly show a nerve has been touched. I think its because he knows there are friends and associates of his that might be implicated at some point. As such an anti-doping ambassador, he cant afford to have too much uncovered for fear of undermining his stance. I don't however think that Millar is mixed up in any doping shinnanigans any more but I still think he knows who is doing it to some extent.
As a rider, Millar still has much to offer. Its a shame he has fractured ribs- I'm sure we'd have seen him in a breakaway by now.

dennisn

BikingBernie wrote:

paulcuthbert wrote:

Quelle surprise - BB pops up in a doping thread

Quelle surprise, Paul Cuthbert pops up in a thread to say absolutely nothing of substance or consequence.

Quite right BB. It was nothing of substance or consequence but it was a fact of life.

hotoph88

BB's got this one right.
Millar did not confess to anything. Bold as brass, master of the Universe, I can win the World Championships and look, there is one of the bottles I used to get it. I am just soooooo great. Soooo much more clever than these little people the fans and journalists that fawn over me and my mates. They are soooooo stupid. The World according to Millar in 2004 was great. Went to the Olympics - did not perform but had a hell of party after wards. This guy was on a roll.

Then one night - like having a video showing - hand in the til,l pulling out the cash - the World changed. Millar had only 1 choice regarding himself. (OK I suppose he could say he used the EPO on a pet dog, he no longer has, that no-one has ever seen, that a friend told him would benefit from having an EPO injection, found the EPO in a bus stop one day).

Millar did have a choice about whether he spilt the beans. Most telling about what was to follow, was his early statement that, a lot of friends had called him and offered him support (does that "support" need inverted commas?). The single friend he went on and named as having called him was my best mate Lance. I only read one thing into his need to share that with the public - "the omerta is safe with me."

12 months after his bust with the police, just what choices did he have. Pariah. No high earning offers for "normal" jobs coming - who wants a convicted cheat on their payrole? Disappear into obscurity flipping burgers ? Excuse me - Mr David Millar is not like one of those "little people". But hold on, he held the code, he still had friends on the inside and the press are dumb - he can tell them he is "born again" and they swallow it. He never made the mistake of taking the *iss too much, "the EPO was my aunties". He had played "straight" with them every day of his sporting life.

Millar has shown a deep cynicism for this sport and his return to it. That performance for the cameras was more of the same.

Yep he might write a really good book. "What I knew all along but did not tell you, in my former life as an actor". May be Michael Barry can add quite a number of good stories and they can yarn together about their very good mate Lance, if Lance gets banged up and his image becomes that of a fallen idol. "what we knew and did but couldn't tell you at the time". Perhaps Bary can write about all the hard work his wife put into preparing for that silver medal in the Olympic TT?

No, I view "'fessed up" dopers claiming born again status with disgust. Marion Jones has 'fessed up. She now does sweet talks to kids about how not to stray from the straight and narrow. This is the same Marion Jones that coldly looked at the extent of jurisdiction of the BALCO findings with expert legal counsel and

fully 'fessed up,

"people please believe me - I was soooo naughty, but honest I did not mean to, it was big bad business that corrupted me"

fully 'fessed up to taking drugs in in 2000 and 2001.

So factually, right now, she retains all her World titles and records from the period 1997, 1998 and 1999.

During which time she married C.J. Hunter and during which period he was tested positive and struck off. "I was clean - I had no idea that CJ was doing such bad things. It was a shock to me that he could do that. I raced clean throughout those years. Then in 2000 I suddenly gotten it into my head that having become World Champion at so many things, and having beaten everyone clean, I would then take some drugs and see what fun it would be to win doped up. No it never occurred to me that something bad might happen to me like, ......like happened to CJ and I get,..... I get,,,something really bad like,,, found out. Honest I am now totally born again. I raced clean in 1997 through 1999 believe me".

We should remember the facts. No testing or athletic governing body action did anything in catching Marion Jones. Jones went to prison for perjury in a cheque fraud case. Factually Jones used ace super-lawyer Johnie Cochran to get her off an alleged case of doping during her HIGH SCHOOL career. ( Just who gets top legal advice for high school sports !) She was cleared.

Does anybody doubt that her confession was not fully analyzed before its release with the best legal advice available then, just as she and CJ had used throughout their careers ? It just gave away the barest minimum.

I sound like I am as fixated by BB on all this. It is just that the Millar case has so many parallels with Marion Jones and they both sound so much alike after wards and in their long term efforts to keep massaging their profiles. In each telling, the tale changes and morphs until its present construction bares little resemblance to the original facts. Neither 'fessed up to anything. Caught red-handed. In a hole they could not get out of, they, once again, took their audience for a bunch of idiots. Millar's BBC video is more of a carefully orchestrated press campaign to keep adjusting his public profile as the mood against his "best mate Lance" changes.

BB I am with you on this. I think you are "barking" on a variety of other things, particularly helmets - but drugs, Lance and Millar, BB I am with you.

I have a casual acquaintance, who is long term religious and from all I know, absolutely one of the nicest people on the planet. That person was just so proud to show me the Livestrong bracelet they had purchased and talk about having read Lance's book from the Library. I didn't have time and I felt that the years will do what is necessary, in a far more kindly manner than ever I would do in 5 minutes then. Blessed ignorance.

paulcuthbert

Dgh wrote:

I think it's right that past dopers who 'fess up, tell how they did it and come back clean should be welcomed back into the sport.

I also suspect David Millar will, eventually, produce a far more interesting book than many pro cyclists could.

I agree- but so long as they have a pronounced, anti-doping stance and speak out against it - as Millar has. I didn't used to like him but I've warmed to him in the last few years. He's very honest and open in interviews, and I like that.

And I also agree on the point that Millar's book would be a better read than most of them!