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news
David Millar MSR 2012 © Simon MacMichaelDavid Millar makes bid for presidency of pro riders' association
David Millar has launched a bid to become the next president of the pro cyclists;’ union, the CPA (Cyclistes Professionnels Associés).
The 41-year-old, who retired from racing in 2014, has since launched his own clothing line and is an insightful pundit for ITV on the Tour de France.
The four-time Tour de France stage winner was banned for two years in 2004, and stripped of his world time trial championship win, for doping after a police raid on his flat in Biarritz discovered syringes containing traces of EPO.
Millar, who was riding for the French team Cofidis at the time, returned to the sport in 2006 with Saunier-Duval then joined Garmin-Sharp in 2008, the team with which he would ride for the rest of his career.
A winner of stages at all three Grand Tours – and wearers of the leader’s jersey at all of them, including on an emotional day at the 2011 Giro d’Italia the day after Wouter Weylandt’s death – Millar sat on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s athlete panel for several years.
Speaking of his candidacy for the top post at the CPA, which will be voted upon at the UCI Road World Championships in Innsbruck later this month, Millar said: “Cycling is the most beautiful sport in the world, and the racers are the most important part of all.
“Since 1999 the CPA has represented riders’ rights – it is recognised by the UCI and the teams association, the AIGCP.
“Its role in the sport is crucial, but there is clearly much more it can do for the benefit of its constituents.
“It is time for riders to take their rightful seat at the governance table and play a meaningful role in deciding the rules of their game, and how their sport grows.”
He continued: “During my career and since my retirement as a rider, I have represented athletes at WADA, national anti-doping organisations, the UCI, and at CPA meetings.
“After discussions with riders of all nationalities in the peloton I know there is a demand – and now an opportunity – to make the CPA a vibrant, positive force going forwards.
“My mission is to make the peloton the most solid and respected part of professional cycling because it’s the racers that matter. They deserve to be looked after and protected and, above all, educated,” Millar added.
Details of his manifesto can be found here.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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19 comments
Yes to Pat Nevin.
^
Pat Nevin is excellent.
Now, back to cycling...
British football punditry shouldn't be held up as an example for anything other than how not to do punditry. Ex-footballers offer zero insight. Nothing. I'd pitch anybody who has even heard of 'offside' against them. It doesn't matter how many draw-on-the-screen gizmos or tactics trucks they get, they are, minus the very rare exception, dogshit.
And when a rare diamond does appear during a world cup or something (probably a foreigner who can speak English but hasn't quite understood the horrors of sitting in a studio surrounded by platitudes dressed in shiny trousers and shirts that don't quite fit them now they've added a few % body fat), they are drowned out by the banality of their more experienced colleagues, and figure they don't need the money, and never repeat the experience. Or, even worse they (d)evolve. Ruud Gullit went from being a superstar, one of the most complete players of his generation, to showing he still had it as a sweeper at Chelsea even at the end of his career, to average manager, peppered with heroic turns as a pundit. If he pops up as a pundit now, he's pretty much Andy Townshend. That isn't A Good Thing.
Literally every other sport draws from much smaller pools and literally every other sport has loads better pundits. Millar et al come out with more interesting gems per race than the average football pundit manages in a career. The main performance criteria seem to be 1) keep saying stuff... anything, apart from 2) don't be old-school racist or misogynistic. 3) broadly fit in with the ladz for bantz (Keano clause applies cos he's only ever got on with his dog).
Choose literally any pub showing literally any match televised in the UK, and I guarantee that there will be more insight coming from a conversation in that pub than from the TV pundits. Guarantee. If you don't find more insight in that pub, post on here and I will literally instantly appear at that pub and literally buy you a literal pint*.
* extremely small print literally applies.
Thanks for the explanation there. Didn't suggest or even infer ex-pros shouldn't work in the media. The Boulting example was just something tiny that I read about in the last few days and it means nothing, but much like Ligget before him for 15 years Boulting's entire income is based on Sky's success, directly or indirectly.
If you want a football example it's something akin to having the commentators, pundits, administrators, union officials etc all from one club like Liverpool or United or Arsenal. Cycling is such a small sport there is only one team in the UK, literally Sky and BC until last year.
Is it? Have you asked him? If Sky end their pro team tomorrow do you really think he will be unemployable? I don't think so. He did earn a living before cycling and he had been working for ITV on the Tour de France for 6 years before Sky even existed. I'd be willing to bet that Ned is perfectly capable of making a living without having to kiss Sky's corporate arse. He's a journalist, not a Sky/BC insider turned commentator.
Millar has enough money, contacts and experience to do perfectly well without Sky.
While pro cycling in the UK has been boosted significantly* by the team's existence, riders like the Yates brothers, Cavendish, Thomas, Stannard, Rowe et al would (some did) succeed anyway. If anything, their success is mainly due to the existence of the BC Academy, and specifically Rod Ellingworth, as well as the people like Tim Harris and those who run & support the Dave Rayner Fund. To claim that Sky is the be-all-and-end-all of British pro cycling success is bollocks.
* having said that, the domestic scene has shrunk in recent years, both in rider numbers and there are fewer high-level races. Money and sponsorship are hard to come by. One Pro Cycling is disbanding (they will run a women's team in 2019) while prominent companies like Pinarello dropping their distributor and dealing direct with stores so there will be even less money to go round. BC appears to fiddle while the road race scene burns.
Thinking about it, you're probably right. I know very little about footy. Beyond the whole tribal us-and-them thing (or perhaps the social side with Sunday league) I fail completely to understand what makes it so interesting. And although I'd love a free pint I would much prefer to watch a bike race, even if it means buying my own beer
I think I have reservations about this from another angle, being that I'd prefer my commentators to be professionally detached and have a more journalistic approach to covering the sport. Not suggesting anything untoward has happened but the ITV team seem to be returning to something alike the cosy relationship Phil Ligget & Paul Sherwin had with Lance Armstrong that damaged them long term. Minor example being Ned Boulting hosting an evening with Geraint Thomas. Very difficult these days with so many ex-pros moving in to the media, but you know, still... Not that I can stand listening to Boulting and Millar, but some people have to
Good commentators are rare. They also always benefit from someone beside them who's had skin in the game and can communicate it. So how is Millar being an ex-pro is an issue? No-one can read a race like they do. It would be like having no ex-players on Match of the Day or World Cup TV coverage? Instead bring in a boring football fan who's never done anything more than kick around in the park and shout obscenities from the cheap seats.
And I don't see how Ned hosting an event compromises anything. Of course they don't ask awkward questions, that's not its purpose, but surely it's the same as a TV show with someone sitting on the sofa because it's part of promoting their latest book, concert tour or TV series. Or perhaps you think Clive Anderson's tactic with The Beegees is the way to go.
TBH the only people that need to think about Millar standing for the CPA role is the riders, the UCI and the race organisers.
While he occasionally comes across as a bit smug, he does seem like an ideal candidate, and quite a nice guy. He seems to have made genuine efforts to help improve doping in the sport and is well liked by riders so would make a great advocate for them.
I do wonder what it would have been like if he'd have arrived into the sport 10-15 years later, there was talk about hm being a proper gt contender, without the widespread doping he was racing with, would he have faired differently?
Good luck to him, I think he's a good choice for it.. however I can't think that the 'CPA' is a very useful or powerful force.. in fact it seems quite the opposite, a toothless group, maybe D Millar can make the group have a louder voice?
What's his main campaign slogan going to be?
Tough on bikes, tough on the causes of bike problems?
Or maybe Make Sunglasses Dorky Again?
Imagine how the Northern Ireland peace process would have got along if they had said "Sorry, we can't have anyone that had links to terrorist organisations involved"?
Millar has first hand seen the good and bad in cycling and that's why he is a great choice.
Hell, I'm even starting to like Lance on instagram these days
Here here Don Simon! Couldnt agree more (esp as an ex smoker myself :p )
Good luck finding someone who was clean. Would someone who just didn’t get caught really be a better choice?
Excellent point...
Yep, But regardless of how nice and well trimmed, showing regretful acknowledgement of his doping. His cheating absolves ANY chance of leading youthful cyclists in the future.
The face of our sport and its leaders must be free from cheating.
Better a less sucessful pro from the past who road clean, to be chosen
A president is a figure head. Imagine every journalist who goes to interview him.
"You, your self were caught , what is your reaction to this...."
That doesn't make sense and the answer to you question markless question is that, and in his own confession, there was no mechanism to prevent him from doping. That doping was prolific and easy. He knows the pitfalls, the advantages and the disadvantages. he's served his time and our justice is all about rehabilitation and he has been rehabilitated. Unless yoyu have any evidence to the contrary, he's clean and has not doped since his reintroduction to the peloton. This makes him the perfect candidate.
I gave up smoking something like 20 years ago after doing a lot of reading to understand it and how the mind works. Should I still be labelled a smoker in your eyes? Or am I some sort of expert on quitting?
If you think I'm still a smoker, or that Millar has not been rehabilitated and is not worthy, says more about you than it does about him.
Good luck to him.
That makes you an ex-smoker and someone who is eminently qualified to understand why people smoke and why they should stop and how that might be best achieved. Likewise your comments re David Millar. Great post.
Wrong!
He volunteered to speak at anti-doping conferences after his ban and opened many eyes regarding how easy it was to dope and how athletes cover up doping. In other words, his experience of going down that path means he can inform current riders of how to avoid it and make clear they have a choice (arguably, then, while he had a choice, it was dope or quit, where-as now hopefully it's a simple choice of whether you want to ride clean or not).
Remember, elsewhere in the world, some of the best gamekeepers were often at one time the poachers.
Good luck to him, he's a really nice bloke who made mistakes and has never hid from the fact.
Listening to him on the tv and having read his books i think he would be an excellent choice.