David Millar (2) (1977–)

I am a big sports fan but I don't read many sporting biographies because in general they tend to be dull. The ones I do read I choose because the either the person has achieved something that really interests me or they have a story to tell. I recently read The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton and thought it was fantastic but I wanted to know more about the drug fueled era of pro-cycling. For this reason I opted for David Millar's book, his is a story that hasn't gained much coverage but he show more does seem to be a reformed character.

I don't like it when sporting biographies spend a long time describing a childhood, there usually isn't anything of particular interest and it feels like padding. In this book however there is an interesting childhood which is covered in just the right amount of detail. Being brought up in Hong Kong and the UK obviously shaped Millar a great deal and he also gives insights into how the transition from amateur to professional happens. It never occurred to me that young cyclists slum in on the European amateur scene trying to get picked up by a pro outfit.

There is a real human element to this book, Millar spends a long time talking about the isolation felt by many pro cyclists. They are often based somewhere away from their team and spend long amounts of time training alone. Centralised team bases and organised team training is something that has come about only fairly recently. Millar also explains in depth how doping was an ever present from the moment he turned pro. There was always an understanding that the teams knew and encouraged their riders to dope but would cast them aside if caught. It's made evidently clear that he didn't want to dope but there was no protection for young riders. Ultimately Millar accepts that is was his decision to dope and he should have been punished. It's also clear to see however that there is some bitterness that riders are punished but teams are not.

The latter chapters of the book cover his redemption and rehabilitation after his doping ban. Due to being naive and poorly advised he had an astronomic tax bill and lost everything. This in turn changed him from being, at his own admission 'a bit of a dick', to a more settled, reflective person. The story of his comeback is a really good read and shows that cycling hadn't learned from the doping of the past. He made it clear that he wanted to be on a non doping free team but this wasn't really supported by the team management. He also took the steps to report a team mate to his bosses and then the UCI for doping and nothing was done about it.

The book is mostly about him and his career but there are a few mentions of other rides who he met and worked with along the way. Of particular interest was his relationship with Bradley Wiggins which was fairly strained. Some of the character traits of Wiggins that he mentions have been seen this year with his results in the Giro and his pulling out of the Tour de France. The book was written before the whole Lance Armstrong saga but you can tell that he wasn't sure about Lance. He doesn't say that he thought Lance is doping, probably fearing a law suit, but the implication is that something wasn't right.

This is a fantastic heart felt book, Millar lets it all out and reveals everyting. I have read that he wrote most of the book himself and knowing how eloquent he is in interviews I can believe it. show less

This book really grabbed me. Yep, David Millar is pretty fascinated with himself, but this is an autobiography after all -- he had to be fascinated enough with himself to write it. Most readers looking at this review probably already know who David Millar is -- he's been an elite professional cyclist for more than 10 years, winning stages of all three grand tours (France, Spain, Italy), specializing in individual time trials. And he is a reformed doper, having been banned from pro cycling show more for 2 years from 2004 to 2006.

Millar tells his story in three stages. In the first, he is a gifted rider, progressing from almost too-easy dominance in smaller amateur races to the challenges of a new pro. He's up for the challenges, though, eventually winning races while staying clean. All along he's prideful in his quiet, personal anti-doping stance. When he finds that his hematocrit level tested at only 40.1 per cent (well below the threshold of suspicion at 50 percent) after winning the time trial at De Panne, he's excited. He's proven he can win clean against a field he knows is doping. But in one of the most poignant moments of the book, he proudly tells Francesco Casagrande, one of his team leaders, of his feat, and Casagrande just says to another team member, "Why isn't he at 50?" It doesn't matter if you can win clean -- what your team wants is that you race at your max, and your max means doping.

Eventually, Millar hits the wall in his career, due to poor training habits, excessive lifestyle, and, presumably, operating at a disadvantage with respect to riders using EPO and other performance-enhancing drugs and treatments. By this time, he's already taking injections of vitamins to aid recovery from race efforts and sleeping meds to get rested enough to race day after day. Now he accepts doping just as what riders do in order to be successful. He's caught red-handed, and he faces both suspension by the sport and criminal charges in France, where he lives.

In stage 3, Millar makes his comeback. During his suspension, he doesn't ride. He's lost the fun of cycling -- it's turned into a job, and now a job he can no longer perform. And his personal life has gone to hell. But he does pull it together, with help, and he is just gifted enough to get enough initial success to propel himself forward. He returns to the top of the sport again, and now, with Jonathon Vaughters' new clean team, Garmin, he finds what he clearly thinks is his more mature self, a spokesperson for clean cycling.

In the end, Millar takes a strident born-again anti-doping stance. He believes that what he lacked as a younger rider was someone who could give him the encouragement and support he needed to resist doping. Doping was ubiquitous but never talked about among the riders. The silence meant that even clean riders couldn't take a stance or band together for support with other clean riders. Now Millar wants, as an established, successful rider and doping-survivor, to fill that gap for other riders who want to stay clean.

He may be too fervent to be effective at getting other riders to do the same. He "lectures" Lance Armstrong after the 2007 Tour de France, challenging him to "Give something back, help us clean up the sport . . . " It doesn't go well, he says, having "perhaps lectured him for a little too long -- 10 minutes too long" in public. Lance says he has "bigger things to do now" than clean up cycling, and the friendship between the two is pretty much cooked.

I liked Millar at the end of the book. He is full of himself, and he proves that over and over again. But, unlike so many other cyclists, he ultimately admits his frailties. Even after having been caught, so many others, like Floyd Landis, carry on the lie in one way or another, destroying their personal credibility so thoroughly that we wouldn't listen to them even if they did try finally to tell the truth. show less

Ever since I saw David Millar win the prologue in the Tour I have followed his career. Back then, unlike now, there was little British involvement for us armchair racers to get behind so he was the obvious rider to support for us Brits. I was very disappointed in him when he was exposed as a doper. I knew doping in cycling was bad, the Festina affair had clearly shown that, but it wasn't until I read this book that the depth of doping, the attitude of the teams towards it and the pressure on show more the riders to constantly produce results or get fired opened my eyes to just how bad it had been.
This book should be read by anyone who follows professional road racing.
Great read. show less

An excellent read. Enjoyable, really well written, insightful and honest. It's completely changed my opinion of David Millar, I will admit before reading this I was one of those who saw doping as black & white and had grouped him with all the other ex-dopers who had tarnished cycling. However, I was closed minded and unaware of his journey, his hard work to get back to the top riding clean and dedication to cleaning up cycling and wider anti-doping activities in sport.