Newsgroup: it.sport.ciclismo
Titolo: Intervista a David Millar

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,4-1868631,00.html
It's possible to win without doping, Millar confesses
By Jeremy Whittle
Our correspondent talks to the Scot planning a return to competition 
after the shame of a two-year ban
DAVID MILLAR, the former world champion cyclist and Tour de France stage 
winner who confessed to taking EPO, the prohibited blood-booster, 
intends to make his comeback in next summer’s Tour, only nine days after 
his two-year ban ends.
In a sport where scandals shadow results, Millar’s return will be highly 
controversial. His life was devastated by his arrest in June 2004. He 
was sacked by his team, Cofidis, banned for two years, thrown out of the 
Great Britain squad for the Athens Olympics, stripped of his 2003 World 
Time Trial Championship and forced to sell his home in France as the 
scandal surrounding him spiralled beyond control.
“It was terrifying the whole bloody time,” he said. “You’re 27 and you 
think you’ve got everything and then suddenly you have nothing — in 
fact, less than nothing. I came back to England and started from 
scratch. I had to reinvent myself. I had no choice because I’d lost 
everything.”
Millar’s ban, which ends on June 23 next year, was only the beginning of 
his problems. “Things kept getting worse, with financial issues and a 
lot of other escalating worries,” he said. “It was very hard. I think we 
all deal with those situations and get out of them differently. I had my 
own way of getting through it and getting my head back above water.
“I lost everything and was punished, but that’s what punishment is. You 
don’t come out of it easily. The circumstances dictated that I ended up 
paying a very high price for my errors compared to other people.”
Millar blames his downfall on his youthfulness and naivety — he turned 
professional at 19 — and his Cofidis team management’s inability to 
protect him. “I was vulnerable. I was a kid living abroad. I wanted to 
be liked, I wanted to make them happy,” he said. “I wanted to be French 
and I wanted to fit in. I had misplaced loyalties and I think they took 
advantage of that. But I have benefited from the experience in the long 
term.”
Sacked by his team and pursued by the French taxman and media, Millar, 
who was born in Hong Kong to Scottish parents, left France and moved to 
Hayfield, in rural Derbyshire, where he already had a network of 
friends. “I had a long time off the bike, when I just didn’t even touch 
it,” he said. “Last summer I started riding again, around the Peak 
District. I loved it and within a month felt like I was flying. It 
reminded me that actually I am quite good at it.”
Millar has been vilified by many within the parochial British cycling 
community and the sight of him training on the sharp climbs of the Peak 
District stunned other cyclists. “I’d stop, say hello, do a photograph 
or whatever,” he said. “I was just enjoying it so much.
“But even before that I’d already decided to come back to racing. I had 
it planned out in my head and I’d never imagined having more than a year 
off the bike. I’ve had to be much more structured about it because I 
don’t have any other structure in my life.”
After resolving to make his comeback, negotiations with some potential 
employers faltered when sponsors backed away from his tainted 
reputation. Millar has now been thrown a lifeline by Saunier Duval, the 
Spanish team sponsor, and is poised to sign a contract within days.
Ironically for an athlete who never failed a drugs test — he was caught 
when a search of his flat by the French drugs squad revealed a cache of 
EPO — Millar is now a staunch advocate of out-of-competition testing. 
“The International Cycling Union (UCI) has to instigate more 
out-of-competition and random testing,” he said. “I’ve hardly heard of 
any of the boys undergoing random testing by the UCI. So where is all 
this testing? Random controls are the only way to stop it all.
“By all means test the top Tour favourites, with random tests on a 
regular basis. Cycling needs those kind of testing tactics — I think 
that all sport does. The UCI need to get a grip on it. Where is the 
prevention? Why don’t the UCI publish lists of who they random-test each 
month and the results, so that we know they’re doing it? It’s the UCI’s 
responsibility and I don’t think they’re fulfilling that responsibility.”
Despite his Peak District training having been the foundation of his 
rehabilitation, Millar plans to move to Spain, possibly to Girona, Lance 
Armstrong’s last European base, in the new year. “Good weather, good 
roads and a reasonable quality of life are what I’m looking for, but I 
don’t think I’ll be living in a surfing, partying seaside town again,” 
he said, mindful of the distractions of his former home in Biarritz.
Millar hopes that his new girlfriend, Nicole, will go with him. “We can 
live a chilled-out existence and I can focus on training and racing,” he 
said. “But the good thing is that I will come back to the UK a lot more 
and spend time there.
“I want my comeback to be credible and inspiring, for me and for others 
and for younger kids. I owe that to cycling and my friends. I want it to 
be unquestionable and good to watch. Because it is possible to win 
without doping.”
This is an abridged version of an interview that will appear in the 
January issue of procycling magazine.
-- 
www.modesta.biciticino.ch
Il sito dedicato alla giovane ciclista lituana Modesta Vzesniauskaite

 It's possible to win without doping,
senza il doping non rimani nemmeno in gruppo 

 ha scritto nel messaggio 
news:LJldf.34561$65.10...@twister1.libero.it...

...euhla'... adesso mi pare un po troppo....
=!= 

 ...euhla'... adesso mi pare un po troppo....
duff, i discorsi sul doping li trovo altamente deprimenti e noiosi. però 
penso anche che nessun essere umano possa finire un tour a oltre 40 all'ora 
di media senza qualche aiuto. Ho sempre detto di considerare il doping una 
pratica generalizzata. tanto da non incidere sul risultato sportivo. un 
brocco rimane un brocco anche se si dopa. a parità di pere vince sempre e 
cmq il più forte. La seconda teoria è che non puoi drogarti come un cammello 
e rimanere ai vertici per 10 anni. Puoi farlo per una stagione o due (ogni 
riferimento a gente che ha fatto fuoco e fiamme per una stagione e poi è 
sparita è puramente voluto) ma non per tutta la carriera. Tutti si dopano il 
giusto per reggere quei ritmi, gli altri o non li reggono o fanno exploit di 
una o due stagioni e poi ritornano nella loro mediocrità. 

 > By Jeremy Whittle
Ricordo un'intervista rilasciata da Millar poco dopo lo scoppio dello
scandalo che lo riguardava.
Dopo averne parlato con un amico inglese eravamo in due a considerarla
molto poco sincera: lacrime da coccodrillo.
Sergio
Pisa

 molto poco sincera: lacrime da coccodrillo.
E pensare che ora lo prende una squadra ProTour.