Great interview, check it out on iplayer.

Yes, I enjoyed that. Very honest, very straight forward and to the point. He has gone up in my estimation.

+1

Heard it on the way home from work. Genuinely really good. Very rare to get anything that in depth on the radio at that time too.

Was indeed very good.

Listened on the way home, surprisingly good interview, Eddie let him talk and for quite a while too.

Sounds like some other sports are up for a bit of WADA attention now…

Good interview particularly wrt how someone who was so anti-doping got into being doped. Basically because no-one else cared – not the other riders, not the officials on the teams, not the organisers, not even really the authorities. It sounded like a man drowning; you can stay afloat so long but when you know that help isn’t coming you might as well give up and sink rather than prolong it.

If he’s right, hopefully enough people care now that while there will be and still are people trying to beat the system, there are also others who are prepared to rail against it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06twbz8 41:10

Good listen. > 15 minutes.

Made quite a pleasant change from the political bickering you normally get.

His book is well worth a read too – it gives a really interesting perspective away from the judgementalism that doping tends to attract. I read William Fotheringham’s book on Tom Simpson over Xmas and it paints a similar story of doping coming less from immorality on the part of the rider and more from extreme pressure to succeed, from both the rider and the cycling world, coupled with an ‘anything necessary is acceptable’ culture.

That doesn’t let Armstrong off the hook though, he’s a very different case IMO.

I didn’t hear the beginning of the interview, and didn’t know who I was listening to at first and just thought this guy has balls being willing to talk so honestly on the radio and then I worked out who it was. Millar deserves praise for his stance now – especially given there are some who’ll always judge him for what he did.

Very interesting blunt comments about other sports refusing to deal with the problem. FA obviously already being dealt with but there’s some massive scandals clearly still to come out elsewhere…

His book is well worth a read too

First one a good read. New book a bit meh.

What’s the name of the programme please? I’m struggling to find it on iplayer. Thanks!

Edit- hadn’t refreshed the page from earlier, I now see that there’s a link above. Doh. Please don’t read this then, there’s no point.

Good interview. First two thirds pretty much a quick summary of his book, but would have been a good insight for anyone who doesn’t follow road racing. Final third would be painful listening for any athletics fans as I think that sport is where cycling was about seven or eight years ago.

His first book is well worth a read. Not read his s second yet. I went from being “all dopers are dicks, end of story” to wondering what I’d have done in that sort of scenario.

Reformed drug cheats seem to do OK.
Compared to people who don’t cheat
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/exclusive-q-and-a-nicole-cooke/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/9800888/Nicole-Cooke-retires-from-cycling-and-takes-aim-at-Tyler-Hamilton-and-Lance-Armstrong.html

To have that desire to be a pro cyclist, to live that life and be immersed in that culture at that time. To be told by your coaches, your team mates, your mentors, your employer, that this is what you need to be doing to be professional, to do your job, and support your team. To see those people doing it. To see the governing body of the sport actively turn a blind eye to the situation. To be beaten up day in day out by people who are better “prepared” than you. To hold out I think you’d need to be a pretty impressive individual.

Nicole is certainly one of those.

I thought it was a good grounded candid interview. I’ve met David a number of times and he’s one of the nicest and genuinely interested in you types.

Ride with him and he’ll still take yer legs off mind… 🙄

But also women’s cycling is a different ball game. Even now there’s less support, less sponsorship, fewer opportunities…and it’s almost impossible to make a living. Therefore less need, less ability to dope?

p.s. none of this is right, and will hopefully change soon

p.p.s. obvs not the lack of doping. That is ok!

http://www.crankpunk.com/blogs/crankpunk/item/751-david-millar-just-one-more-prick-in-the-arse-cheek-of-cycling.html

Nicole Cooke: a cycling champion with integrity

Calm under pressure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIW1MAvyPD4

Not judgemental
or bitter
or even vindictive
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/8883/Millar-has-strong-words-about-Bradley-Wiggins-and-Sky-Procycling.aspx

He waffled a bit towards the end but I didn’t hear much after knocking that cyclist off….

Yes, I enjoyed that. Very honest, very straight forward and to the point. He has gone up in my estimation.

This

Not judgemental
or bitter
or even vindictive
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/8883/Millar-has-strong-words-about-Bradley-Wiggins-and-Sky-Procycling.aspx

I think he had grounds to be bitter, Wiggins does have form for this, just ask cavendish after beijing. I think they’re all friends again now tho.

The Breakaway Nicole Cooke My Story.
The Sunday Times Sport Book of the Year.

“I was World and Olympic champion, British Cycling was receiving millions of pounds of Lottery money for the administration of the sport and yet they cared so little that they could not get me the right kit to wear, kit that a 12-year-old could have at the Helmond Youth Tour and all the other things. They couldn’t sort out a replacement headset on my bike, while my bike for Beijing had not arrived until July – at least it was earlier than the time-trial machine for Athens, but it was still too late.
We couldn’t get a whole team entered for the World Championships, leaving two women’s places blank. Why? By comparison, not a single man had finished from the full male team we had at Beijing in the road race, while Sharon had crashed, but cut and bleeding she had chased alone to the end. At Versese the next day, a full team of GB men would line up comprising professional riders Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas, David Millar, Ian Stannard, Stephen Cummins and domestic rider Russell Downing. Of this illustrious list, Russell was the only one to finish, crossing the line in the main group in 28th place, 4:53 down on the winner. He at least recognised that when you wore a national jersey…

…….I didn’t need a crystal ball back in 2008 to predict that, by the time of writing six years later, while millions have been poured into a system to convert the male non-finishers at Beijing and Versese into world beaters, virtually nothing has come the way of the female road riders, whether it was Emma, Lizzie, Sharon or me.
Post-Beijing some media pundits, those who ignored all that the British girls achieved on the road, criticised British Cycling, denigrated their achievements on the track as being peripheral to the sport, due to the fact that so few countries had a serious attitude to track racing. ………..

…….The most obvious thing to do would be to do would have been to use my status as World and Olympic champion to negotiate for the best year’s pay of my life and join an established team. I might even have been able to persuade them to allow me to bring a couple of GB riders, but I couldn’t expect them to to ceate a team composed mainly of GB riders. My dream was to create a team that would act as a development opportunity for young female riders. I wanted others to have an easier route than I had. So much talent had been lost, ground down by the attitudes of British Cycling. I knew I would only ever have this chance once to do something this big in my life, and I wanted to take it, regardless of the men in the sport around me and regardless of the risk to me. …..

…..We worked with various specialists in sports marketing and sponsorship, and time and time again we were told of the corrosive effect on potential sponsors not familiar with cycling of googling ‘cycling’ and coming up with all the recent stories. Particularly galling was the effect on women’s product sponsors. As an attempt to attract sponsors outside the norm, who might have a commercial interest in women’s health and fitness, we were left with the understanding that no worthwhile brand was going to risk becoming contaminated by contact with a sport where lurid and fantastic tales of bags of blood-dominated search engine results.

In 2006, I had spoken out against the return of David Millar to the GB road team. David’s sister Fran was now promoted by David Brailsford to handle PR and potential sponsorship enquiries into British Cycling and direct them towards riders. That I seemed to receive only those enquiries turned down by other British Cycling Olympians did not surprise me.”

Macavity – You are Nicole Cooke and I claim my £5.

So is your beef that BC are miles better at supporting track cycling and men’s road at the expense of other disciplines that’s hardly news or david Millars fault.

Will listen to the radio clip later but he comes across when presenting tv program’s and in interviews as a driveling, pompous, arrogant weapons grade bell end.

We shall see.

Macavity in his garage, earlier

😉

FWIW I’ve read Cooke’s book and am a fan of hers and hugely impressed by what she achieved and what she had to go through. But I also like Millar.

Cooke’s face didnt fit at BC, which is a shame as she was an awesome rider, told it straight, and was clean. But like everything you need to fit in the clique to achieve.

Cycling has a history of celebrating those who don’t deserve it, Simpson is a great example of this.

As for Milliar, I read his first book, and I liked it, but the more I see of him in the press etc I think this sums him up very well!

kingkongsfinger – Member
comes across when presenting tv program’s and in interviews as a driveling, pompous, arrogant weapons grade bell end.