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David Millar promises to “change your opinion” and reveal “what goes on in pro cycling world”, after critics slam sports festival for “platforming a former doper”

The festival has responded saying that former national champion will be taking all questions, “no matter how difficult and searching they may be”

Retired Scottish pro cyclist David Millar's upcoming appearance as a guest speaker at a sports festival, to speak about his journey and experiences, has received criticism online for “platforming a former doper”, forcing the organisers to release a statement clarifying that Millar will be open to answering “difficult and searching” questions about the ins and outs of the pro cycling world and that the former British champion is keen to “change opinions”.

The festival in question is the Keswick Mountain Festival (KMF), an annual festival held in May in Keswick, Cumbria, featuring a diverse category of sports like cycling, running, swimming, hiking, and more. Earlier this month, the festival announced through its social media that Millar would be joining the KMF as a speaker.

However, the response wasn’t one, perhaps, the organisers were hoping for, with many people on social media critical of the festival for giving the mic to Millar, who in 2004 initially admitted to doping on two occasions in 2001 and 2003, after he was found by French police to be in the possession of the performance-enhancing, blood boosting drug EPO and two used syringes.

Millar was subsequently suspended by British Cycling for two years and stripped of his world time trial championship along with his Tour de France and Vuelta a España stage wins, as well as receiving a lifetime ban from the British Olympic Association. 

After returning to the sport as a reformed anti-doping activist, especially after joining the outspokenly ‘clean’ Garmin-Slipstream team in 2008, Millar revealed in his 2011 autobiography, Racing Through the Dark, that he had used EPO for two years between 2001 and 2003.

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Following the backlash, KMF has shared another statement on its social media, responding to the criticisms. It wrote: “The announcement of David Millar as a speaker at KMF wasn’t met with universal approval. People didn't think we should be platforming a former doper.

“David invites you to hear his story, an inside view into what really goes on in the world of professional cycling. He wants to confront these perceptions head on with a view to changing your opinion. And he’ll be taking your questions, no matter how difficult and searching they may be.

“So come and ask what you really want to know about.”

Despite this, backlash against KMF’s decision has still lingered on. Lee Wood commented on Facebook: “Will he explain why ‘I only doped once’ ultimately became ‘I doped lots’? The problem many people have with [Millar] is not that he doped, nor that he got caught, but that he made a post-ban career based on lies, hypocrisy and being incredibly sanctimonious.

“But he’s repeatedly given a platform and no one within cycling ever calls him out on the inconsistencies in his story.”

> National TT champ Alex Dowsett calls for drugs cheats to be banned for life

However, a number of people have also expressed their support for Millar. Ben Elliot wrote: “He put his head above the parapet and became part of the wave that ended the omerta (that destroyed [Paul] Kimmage and others) to an end. Cycling needed its catharsis to end the ways of its past. The days of aspiring riders believing it's necessary to dope to win professionally or at the Olympics are gone.”

Matt Schofield also said on Twitter: “People should read his book before passing comment. Doping was rampant at the time and nearly destroyed the sport, but people like DM made a stand following a ban to lift the lid on it and save hundreds of new riders falling into the same trap! People should thank, not vilify!”

After his suspension period was over, Millar returned to the pro cycling scene and won the national road and time trial championships in 2007, as well as stacking his palmares with Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España stage wins, wearing the KOM jersey at the Tour de France and winning a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

He retired in 2014 and since 2016 has been the co-commentator on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and Vuelta a España, as well as hosting a cycling-adjacent podcast Never Strays Far with fellow ITV commentator Ned Boulting and former pro Peter Kennaugh.

Last year in August, Millar had sparked up controversy after posting a video of his new SUV, the Ineos Grenadier 4x4, with the caption: “The INEOSGrenadier has landed. There’s a fine line between madness/genius and this car is owning it.”

Many fans and cycling campaigners slammed the post, with Prof Matt Hannon from the University of Strathclyde writing: “When cycling superstars like David promote SUVs, you know we have a very big cultural problem regarding status symbols & conspicuous consumption. One which, in my honest opinion, presents the single biggest threat to sustainability & net-zero, as we rely ever more on people to change their lifestyles.

“I’m particularly confused by this as David is such an important spokesperson for cycling. He's an inspiration to so many, to take to two wheels and ditch four.

“I hope he can re-evaluate his values as they don’t seem compatible with one another. We need people like him onboard.”

Adwitiya joined road.cc in 2023 as a news writer after graduating with a masters in journalism from Cardiff University. His dissertation focused on active travel, which soon threw him into the deep end of covering everything related to the two-wheeled tool, and now cycling is as big a part of his life as guitars and football. He has previously covered local and national politics for Voice Wales, and also likes to writes about science, tech and the environment, if he can find the time. Living right next to the Taff trail in the Welsh capital, you can find him trying to tackle the brutal climbs in the valleys.

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63 comments

Avatar
LookMumNoHands | 8 months ago
1 like

Ah, welcome to the cognotive dissonance of 'true cycling fans', for whom the purity of the sport is all, the Velominati isn't satire, and doping is basically okay as long as you fall on sword when caught and never talk about it. 

Millar was a bit of dick when pro, and anecdotally can still be a bit of a dick these days - however, the personality type required to get to the top flight of any professional sport does lend itself to being a bit of dick. 

Indeed, that seems to be the underlying problem for those that dislike him - since retiring Millar has been quite a bit of a dick to the percieved sanctity and purity of the sport by rightly pointing out that doping wasn't, isn't, an individual rider's choice - it takes a quite a large team of people to put PEDs into a pro rider's blood. 

That the sport was systemically rotten is not a message the puritanical want to hear, not least because it raises the very awkward question of whether the sport is clean right now.

Far better for the bogeymen such as Millar, Armstong, and others to quietly STFU so the purtians can go back to hero worshipping the martyrdom of Pantani and Simpson. 

Avatar
levestane | 8 months ago
2 likes

I agree with  Matt Hannon, promoting mindless consumption is a much bigger issue than seeking career advantage.

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Velophaart_95 | 8 months ago
6 likes

Cycling has the most ridiculous sets of fans I know of......

He doped, was caught, and has spoken about it, and has campaigned for clean sport. I don't know what the problem is?

Footballers dive, cricketers use sandpaper, cheating happens in all sports......

 

The critics should get back in the box they crawled out of......

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john_smith replied to Velophaart_95 | 8 months ago
4 likes

A few nobodies who represent no one but themselves. They're not worth worrying about. Before the advent of "social media", they would have gone unnoticed.

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IanGlasgow replied to Velophaart_95 | 8 months ago
0 likes

He was only interested in campaigning against doping after he got caught. He didn't give it up voluntarily.

Now his company bost about their supposed eco-credentials while he advertises the world's most pointless SUV.

The man's a massive hypocrite and needs to be called out for it.

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ChurchillR replied to IanGlasgow | 8 months ago
0 likes

According to his autobiography he did give it up voluntarily. He was caught when French police found two old syringes in his house, at which point he was no longer using. Of course that might not be true but you have no evidence to the contrary, and if he was still using why didn't the same search turn up clean syringes and needles and fresh vials of epo?

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IanEdward | 8 months ago
6 likes

What's that old saying about a foolish consistency being the hobgoblin of small minds?

I'm reminded of it every time people wheel out their high-horses to proclaim against ex-dopers.

Apart from the fact that I really enjoy his commentary and found his book a good read, I also wonder if cycling as a professional dport is slightly better off for D.M. having doped and then come out about it later OR would cycling be better off for him having not doped at all and having been that little bit more anonymous to begin with.

Sure, morally he made the wrong decision, potentially depriving clean athletes of a chance at success, but perhaps he has atoned for that?

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TROOPER74 | 8 months ago
0 likes

It's not only taking drugs that damages the sport and the rider .. it's the side effects. ... Look at Robert Millar ..... he turned into Pippa ... !!!

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papapasco replied to TROOPER74 | 8 months ago
15 likes

Better to keep your mouth shut and people think you're a prick than to open it so that people know you're a prick

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Freddy56 replied to papapasco | 8 months ago
0 likes

Dude, too agressive. Road.cc should have you banned. I agree Miller was a cheat and bad for our sport and should be pushed to the back of the stage, not the front. He has nothing to offer that is positive for our sports's future.

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dubwise replied to Freddy56 | 8 months ago
3 likes

Tom Simpson is hailed as a hero, yet he took drugs.

Is it dependent on where you come from whether you are a drugs cheat or not?

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papapasco replied to Freddy56 | 8 months ago
13 likes

My comment was not directed at David Millar - it was a response to Trooper74's transphobic "joke" about Pippa York.

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Hirsute replied to papapasco | 8 months ago
6 likes

I thought your comment was obvious in its meaning. Poster you replied to has history in this site.

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papapasco replied to Hirsute | 8 months ago
4 likes

I am new to road.cc - is there no moderation of comments? I can't see how this would be acceptable here. More what you would expect from some golf club bore or BTL on the Daily Mail

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to papapasco | 8 months ago
4 likes
papapasco wrote:

I am new to road.cc - is there no moderation of comments? I can't see how this would be acceptable here. More what you would expect from some golf club bore or BTL on the Daily Mail

Not much but if you email info [at] road.cc they will look at any complaint.

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papapasco replied to Rendel Harris | 8 months ago
4 likes

Thanks - done that

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Hirsute replied to papapasco | 8 months ago
5 likes

There is little moderation.
Anti semitism and racism are the main things that result in a post removed. It's all retro active if you use the address highlighted by Rendel.

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don simon fbpe replied to papapasco | 8 months ago
4 likes

There's a few Daily Mail readers on here and a couple of out and out dickheads.

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hawkinspeter replied to don simon fbpe | 8 months ago
3 likes
don simon fbpe wrote:

There's a few Daily Mail readers on here and a couple of out and out dickheads.

…but you repeat yourself

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don simon fbpe replied to hawkinspeter | 8 months ago
1 like

Some are simply not aware of their brains having been washed and need a little education (or a slap), the dickheads know exactly what they're doing.

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E6toSE3 replied to hawkinspeter | 8 months ago
1 like

Not all dickheads read the DM. Other bog paper is available, Express is worse

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TROOPER74 replied to papapasco | 8 months ago
3 likes

I've met Pippa ... had the greatest, greatest respect for her former persona ... and ... who she is now .. what makes Pippa so special is .... unlike you .. her sense of humour ...   Free speech not one of your strong points .. ? 
Like so many others ... ...

Forums should be about information and discussion .... but discussion is the enemy of so many ...

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papapasco replied to TROOPER74 | 8 months ago
9 likes

Nothing wrong with my sense of humour, I just don't think that using the fact that someone is trans as an excuse for a cheap & fatuous "laugh" is particularly funny. If you had respect for Pippa, or trans people in general, you would know that "dead naming" someone can be extremely offensive. Open your mind, Trooper74, and you would realise that trans people are amongst the most marginalised, discriminated against and vulnerable people in our society, thanks in part to right wing politicians' persistent attempts to demonise them. You chose to make your "joke" below an article about a completely different ex pro cyclist and an issue that has nothing to do with being trans. This is not "free speech", just your self-indulgent bigotry, masquerading as "bantz"

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TROOPER74 replied to papapasco | 8 months ago
3 likes

Thank god I didn't get your pronoun wrong ...  one of my children is Trans , transitioned 6 years ago ... never marginalised, never discriminated against, certainly not vulnerable ....  ... some people wake every morning determined to be offended ... Others choose life...

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Rendel Harris replied to TROOPER74 | 8 months ago
5 likes

Some choose bullshit and lies, also.

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Hirsute replied to TROOPER74 | 8 months ago
5 likes

"never marginalised, never discriminated against"

Of course.

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Rendel Harris replied to Hirsute | 8 months ago
8 likes
Hirsute wrote:

"never marginalised, never discriminated against"

I have dozens of black friends and not one of them has ever experienced racism, it's just made up by people who "wake up every morning determined to be offended".

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papapasco replied to TROOPER74 | 8 months ago
5 likes

And yet YOU choose to make a "joke" at the expense of a trans person, apropos of nothing at all. Just ask yourself whether a trans, gay or non-binary person reading your original comment would think that this is a forum where they can feel comfortable about who they are.

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E6toSE3 replied to TROOPER74 | 8 months ago
2 likes

Stop digging

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E6toSE3 replied to TROOPER74 | 8 months ago
3 likes

Nasty little piece of work, aren't you?

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