Kimmage on David Millar

Steve McGinty said:

(Long article - don't think you have to subscribe - if you
do let me know and I'll post it)

From outside the UK, yes: "The area you wish to access is
behind registration."

On Mon, 10 May 2004 20:19:38 +0200, Ewoud Dronkert <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Steve McGinty said:

(Long article - don't think you have to subscribe - if you
do let me know and I'll post it)

From outside the UK, yes: "The area you wish to access is
behind registration."

Okay - pretty extensive use of quotes and italics, so don't
know how it will read...

"Cycling: Rider in the storm PAUL KIMMAGE Top British
cyclist David Millar wants to move on from his team’s doping
scandal but the questions are not going away

In February, the new cycling season began with five past and
present riders from the Cofidis team, along with the team
masseur, under investigation for drug trafficking. The rider
Philippe Gaumont was one of those who gave evidence. Last
month, huge extracts of the cyclist’s testimony to the
investigating magistrate, Richard Pallain, were leaked to
L’Equipe. In it, Britain’s David Millar — the Cofidis team
leader, world time-trial champion and Tour de France stage
winner — was implicated in a doping scandal.

It is Tuesday, May 4, and I am sitting in a bedroom of a
hotel in Calais, staring at my mobile phone. I have just
sent a note to Millar and am anxiously awaiting his call ...

“David, in a recent interview with Procycling (magazine) you
mentioned your frustration at the lack of coverage you’ve
been getting in the mass media.The stage is yours. I’ve a
lot of interesting questions for you.

“Regards...”

The afternoon stretches into evening. I call his room, but
there is no reply. Two days later, a fax arrives from the
office of his London solicitors.

“Dear Sir, “We act for David Millar. It has come to our
client’s attention that your newspaper may be about to
publish an article about our client and the Cofidis cycling
team. You will be aware that several ex-members of the
Cofidis team are being investigated by the French judicial
authority in connection with the use of banned substances.
Our client is not under investigation and has gone on record
to say that he has never used banned substances.
Furthermore, we understand that the Cofidis team have
dismissed any person whom they had any suspicion of being
involved with banned substances and accordingly, no current
members of the team are being investigated or are under
suspicion. If you publish any suggestion that our client has
taken banned substances we will bring legal proceedings for
libel against you.

“Yours faithfully ...”

WEDNESDAY, MAY 5 (Part 1): It’s 11.30 on a cold, grey
morning in Dunkirk, and I am standing outside the Hotel de
Ville as the deluxe camping car carrying Millar and his
seven Cofidis teammates arrives for the opening stage of the
Quatre Jours de Dunkirk. Two TV crews and a handful of
journalists have gathered in the square to monitor their
arrival. Since January, the team has been rocked by doping
allegations, and Dunkirk marks its return to competition
after a month of self-imposed suspension.

Millar is first off the bus. He signs a couple of autographs
and follows his teammates to the podium, where they are
introduced to the crowd. In 1986, in what seems a different
life, I stood where he stands now. I earned my living as a
professional bike rider, the toughest job in sport. Millar
has just finished a short TV interview when I introduce
myself. I tell him I work for this newspaper.

It’s starting to rain; an icy wind is blowing through the
square. He accepts my hand, but does not seem pleased to
meet me. “What are the chances of sitting down with you at
some stage this week?” I ask.

He thinks about it: “Emm, pretty slim, to be honest.”

“Is that a slim ‘yes’ or a slim ‘no’?” “It depends what you
want to talk about; cycling or doping.”

“I want to talk about your career and the allegations that
have been made about you.”

“You want to talk about my career! I’ve been a pro for eight
years and you’ve never spoken to me once. I just find it
strange that you come suddenly out of the woodwork.”

“Well, (my colleague) David Walsh has covered the last few
Tours (de France). I’ve been doing other things.”

“Well, tell them to send David Walsh then. I’ll talk to him.
I respect his work. And I’ve no problem talking to Jeremy
Whittle (The Times) or William Fotheringham (The Guardian).
But you — you’ve a bit of a reputation.”

I tell him that serious allegations have been made and I’d
like to hear his side of the story.

“That’s all [censored],” he says.

“Really? And what about the interview your boss gave a
couple of months ago? It wasn’t exactly a ringing
endorsement. Did he tell you I was asking about you at his
press conference yesterday?” “And what’s he saying now?” “He
says you’re a great champion.”

“Yeah, well you’d better take him at his word.”

He grabs his bike and begins moving away from the podium.
It seems a good time to compromise. “Okay, maybe this is a
bad time. I don’t have to write anything this week. Why
don’t we sit down next week and go through it from A to Z,
when things have calmed down?” “No, I’m not talking to
you,” he says, pedalling towards the bus, “you can write
whatever you want.”

Oh dear, what have I done to upset him?

WHEN it comes to the art of racing a bike, Millar has always
been a class act. It was class that set him apart during his
earliest days at High Wycombe and class that brought him to
the Cofidis team at the tender age of 20, in 1997.

He could not have entered professional cycling at a worse
time. The abuse of performance-enhancing drugs was rampant,
its drug culture so ingrained that the doping continued
after the Festina scandal in July 1998, when its rotten core
was finally exposed. The following year, Millar’s third as a
professional, the Cofidis president, François Migraine, was
worried about some of the rumours he was hearing, and
commissioned a French doctor, Jean-Christophe Seznec, to
conduct a psychiatric analysis of his team. The results,
published later that year in a French medical journal
(Cofidis were not identified), were frightening.

A number of the team’s riders, Seznec concluded, were
showing addictive tendencies towards a sleep-inducing pill
called Stilnox, which was consumed in high doses at parties,
or in hotel rooms between stages. Performance-enhancing? No,
they were abusing the drug for kicks. There were other
trends; relations with prostitutes; use of

in food.

And yet, despite the mayhem going on around him, Millar
emerged unscathed. How do we know this? Because the word on
the grapevine was that Millar raced and lived “a l’eau”. He
was clean. “It is why I have become such a big commodity in
the sport,” he told Walsh in February 2000. “Teams are
looking for guys who can do it naturally. People within
cycling know who is clean and they can tell from my results
that I am.” Three years later, nothing much has changed.
Millar is clean — we can tell from his results — but there
have been some strange noises of late, coming from the so-
called “people within who know”.

Last January, two weeks after the start of what has become
the “Cofidis affair”, Frederique Galametz, a journalist with
L’Equipe, was granted an interview with Migraine in Paris.
The 60-year old Frenchman has never been shy in front of a
microphone, and the more the interview progressed, the more
Galametz found herself glancing at her recorder, praying its
wheels were turning. The team president’s candour was
astonishing.

“I wouldn’t cut my hand off for any of my riders,” he
announced, when the conversation turned to doping and those
he believed were clean, “except, perhaps, for one, and you
know who that is”.

“David Moncoutie?” “Yes, everyone is pretty much unanimous
in saying that he takes nothing.”

Later in the interview, the spotlight turned to Millar, the
team leader. “Managing a David Millar,” Migraine said, “is
no mean feat. I dream of finding a leader tomorrow like (the
former French champion) Charly Mottet who possessed the four
elements that make a good rider but never touched the fifth.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen any more.”

“How do you mean?” “Mottet had the talent, the mentality,
the healthy lifestyle and the dedication. The fifth element
for me is doping. David has the talent, especially in the
time trials, a good mentality ... and a sometimes healthy
lifestyle, like his dedication ... As far as doping is
concerned, for David (he shrugs his shoulders), I know
nothing . . . As I’ve already said, I wouldn’t be sure
about anyone.”

“But you’ve spoken to him?” Galametz asked.

“What’s the point? If I ask him and he says, ‘Yes, I dope’,
what am I supposed to do? I can’t fire him before the end of
his contract but I know and I have to live with that. I’m in
a [censored] that’s unmanageable, I’ve no solution.”

“So you prefer not to know?” “It’s better that I don’t
know.”

The portrait that Gaumont, one of those dismissed by
Cofidis, paints of the aftermath of Millar’s Tour de France
stage win in Nantes last year is controversial and extremely
damaging to Millar. “Millar won the last time-trial and we
celebrated that evening with champagne,” he says. “Millar
trusts me, and he ordered (Jean-Jacques) Menuet (the team
doctor) to give (Cedric) Vasseur and me the rest of the
preparation he had used that morning with (Massimiliano)
Lelli before the time trial. The next morning, just before
we left the hotel, Vasseur and I went to Menuet’s room at
Millar’s request . . . It was a Sunday, the Champs-Elysees
stage . . . Menuet injected each of us with a syringe
containing a clear liquid, but wouldn’t say what it was. I
think it was cortisone or growth hormone. He then cut the
syringes with a pliers to dispose of them. ‘Tonight,’ he
said, ‘we’re going to see some Cofidis on the telly’.”

Vasseur was also pointing fingers when summoned before the
magistrate. In his testimony, he alleged that Gaumont had
come to his room one evening during the last training camp
in Spain and told him he had just seen Millar “doing a line”
of cocaine. “It wasn’t actually cocaine,” Vasseur told the
judge, “but Stilnox and ephedrine.” The allegation appears
again in Gaumont’s statement. He also claimed that Millar
had been working with a Spanish doctor with “a bad
reputation”.

Menuet and Alain Bondue, the Cofidis general manager, have
since lost their jobs.

On Wednesday, during our brief conversation, Millar
dismissed the allegations as “[censored], but declined
to say more.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 5 (Part 2): Do you believe in divine
intervention? I’m sitting in a car, driving through the
village of Warhem, ahead of the race, when the weirdest
thing happens. I have just passed a banner by the side of
the road that reads “It’s Millar Time. Go David!” when
David’s sister, Fran, calls my mobile phone. She sounds
charming and seems very concerned that David and I haven’t
hit it off.

“There’s no problem here,” I assure her, “I would much
rather sit down in comfort with David than write anything
this week.”

“Why don’t you fax your questions to his hotel and we’ll
take it from there?” she says.

“No, no,” I demur, “he’s a big boy now. Let’s set up the
interview first.”

I agree to send her an e-mail outlining what the interview
will entail. For the next hour, we engage in frantic text.

(Message from Fran) “Hi Paul, my email is ------. Please
include terms and agenda for potential interview. Thanks,
Fran.” (Message to Fran) “Fran, my terms are truth and
honesty. No agenda, just the A to Z of his career. Monday is
good for me — anytime, anywhere.” (Message from Fran)
“Hopefully that goes without saying — but I will need you to
be more specific than that I’m afraid! Would also like
confirmation that if this is agreed to, it will replace the
piece on Sunday. Call me if you want to discuss.”

I call Fran. “I’m not a magician,” I say. “There’s not going
to be any rabbits coming out of hats. All I want to do is
sit him down and discuss the current allegations and his
career. You are more than welcome to join us. He can even
bring his lawyer.”

She insists on a written guarantee that nothing will appear
on Sunday if the interview is agreed for next week. No
problem, I say. We’re almost home. Fran does not see any
reason we can’t meet on Monday, and she promises she will
speak to David as soon as the stage has finished. When she
calls again, I’m standing on the press podium opposite the
finishing line and can hardly hear a word with the noise.
She says something about the nature of the investigation and
there being a problem: “David’s French lawyers are insisting
they see the questions in advance.”

I tell her this is not something I can do. An hour later we
reach the endgame. The stage has finished. She’s spoken to
David. He hasn’t changed his mind.

(Message from Fran) “Sorry we couldn’t arrange it this
time, maybe some other time? At the moment David is just
keen to get on with riding his bike. Regards, Fran.”
(Message to Fran) “No problem, I understand, the law of
silence is golden.”

The next afternoon, the solicitor’s fax arrives. I am left
with questions. If Millar’s solicitors are correct, and
Cofidis have rid the team of the bad eggs, why was he so
reluctant to talk, and why couldn’t he simply tell me that
Migraine’s previous laissez-faire attitude had changed and
that the team had rid itself of the drug-takers? And how
could he not have known that others in the team were doping?
Millar may be the victim of damaging allegations from
teammates, but he is not helping himself by refusing to
talk. In the meantime, we await Pallain’s judicial findings.

SOMETIMES the end feels like the beginning. I’m sitting in a
bedroom of a hotel in Calais on a wet Friday evening,
writing a note to Millar. I have decided to send him a book
I wrote in 1989 called Rough Ride, an exposé of doping in
cycling. It documents my own experiences in the peloton and
tells how I came to discover the depressing realities of
life as a pro.

“David, during our brief conversation on Wednesday you
mentioned my ‘reputation’. I can only assume you were
thinking of this book. Fran asked me to send you my
questions and I told her that I don’t do that. But I have
decided to make an exception. I have a question. What
aspect of the book do you have a problem with? Best wishes,
Paul Kimmage"

Regards! Stephen

Steve McGinty said:

Okay - pretty extensive use of quotes and italics, so
don't know how it will read...

"Cycling: Rider in the storm PAUL KIMMAGE Top British
cyclist David Millar wants to move on from his team's
doping scandal but the questions are not going away

[snip]

Thanks. Interesting. Seems to me Millar probably was wise to
decline the interview.

On Mon, 10 May 2004 21:15:51 +0200, "Robert Chung" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Steve McGinty said:

Okay - pretty extensive use of quotes and italics, so
don't know how it will read...

"Cycling: Rider in the storm PAUL KIMMAGE Top British
cyclist David Millar wants to move on from his team's
doping scandal but the questions are not going away

[snip]

Thanks. Interesting. Seems to me Millar probably was wise
to decline the interview.

I've got a lot of time for Kimmage - "Rough Ride" is superb
- but on this occasion I think you might be right.

Interesting to compare this with the McGee interview I
posted previously - I think the main difference may be an
interviewer with a "history" and one one who (although an
elite) didn't progress to the pro-ranks.

Regards! Stephen

Steve McGinty said:

Ewoud Dronkert said:

Steve McGinty said:

(Long article - don't think you have to subscribe - if
you do let me know and I'll post it)

From outside the UK, yes: "The area you wish to access
is behind

Quoted message said:

registration."

Okay - pretty extensive use of quotes and italics, so
don't know how it will read...

"Cycling: Rider in the storm PAUL KIMMAGE Top British
cyclist David Millar wants to move on from his team’s
doping scandal but the questions are not going away

Pretty much "and when did you stop beating your wife?"
kind of stuff.

"Steve McGinty" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...
(long article)

Paul was pretty balanced, I think. The direct allegations
are the first I've heard anything more than generalities.
I'm afraid that it doesn't look good for David Millar.

Tom Kunich said:

"Steve McGinty" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...
(long article)

Paul was pretty balanced, I think. The direct allegations
are the first I've heard anything more than generalities.
I'm afraid that it doesn't look good for David Millar.

Yeah, hiding behind his lawyers isn't going to do much good
in the press.

"Steve McGinty" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Ewoud Dronkert said:

Steve McGinty said:

(Long article - don't think you have to subscribe - if
you do let me know and I'll post it)

From outside the UK, yes: "The area you wish to access is
behind registration."

Okay - pretty extensive use of quotes and italics, so
don't know how it will read...

"Cycling: Rider in the storm PAUL KIMMAGE Top British
cyclist David Millar wants to move on from his team's
doping scandal but the questions are not going away

In February, the new cycling season began with five past
and present riders from the Cofidis team, along with the
team masseur, under investigation for drug trafficking.
The rider Philippe Gaumont was one of those who gave
evidence. Last month, huge extracts of the cyclist's
testimony to the investigating magistrate, Richard
Pallain, were leaked to L'Equipe. In it, Britain's David
Millar - the Cofidis team leader, world time-trial
champion and Tour de France stage winner - was implicated
in a doping scandal.

It is Tuesday, May 4, and I am sitting in a bedroom of
a hotel in Calais, staring at my mobile phone. I have
just sent a note to Millar and am anxiously awaiting
his call ...

"David, in a recent interview with Procycling (magazine)
you mentioned your frustration at the lack of coverage
you've been getting in the mass media.The stage is yours.
I've a lot of interesting questions for you.

"Regards..."

The afternoon stretches into evening. I call his room, but
there is no reply. Two days later, a fax arrives from the
office of his London solicitors.

"Dear Sir, "We act for David Millar. It has come to our
client's attention that your newspaper may be about to
publish an article about our client and the Cofidis
cycling team. You will be aware that several ex-members of
the Cofidis team are being investigated by the French
judicial authority in connection with the use of banned
substances. Our client is not under investigation and has
gone on record to say that he has never used banned
substances. Furthermore, we understand that the Cofidis
team have dismissed any person whom they had any suspicion
of being involved with banned substances and accordingly,
no current members of the team are being investigated or
are under suspicion. If you publish any suggestion that
our client has taken banned substances we will bring legal
proceedings for libel against you.

"Yours faithfully ..."

WEDNESDAY, MAY 5 (Part 1): It's 11.30 on a cold, grey
morning in Dunkirk, and I am standing outside the Hotel de
Ville as the deluxe camping car carrying Millar and his
seven Cofidis teammates arrives for the opening stage of
the Quatre Jours de Dunkirk. Two TV crews and a handful of
journalists have gathered in the square to monitor their
arrival. Since January, the team has been rocked by doping
allegations, and Dunkirk marks its return to competition
after a month of self-imposed suspension.

Millar is first off the bus. He signs a couple of
autographs and follows his teammates to the podium, where
they are introduced to the crowd. In 1986, in what seems a
different life, I stood where he stands now. I earned my
living as a professional bike rider, the toughest job in
sport. Millar has just finished a short TV interview when
I introduce myself. I tell him I work for this newspaper.

It's starting to rain; an icy wind is blowing through the
square. He accepts my hand, but does not seem pleased to
meet me. "What are the chances of sitting down with you at
some stage this week?" I ask.

He thinks about it: "Emm, pretty slim, to be honest."

"Is that a slim 'yes' or a slim 'no'?" "It depends what
you want to talk about; cycling or doping."

"I want to talk about your career and the allegations that
have been made about you."

"You want to talk about my career! I've been a pro for
eight years and you've never spoken to me once. I just
find it strange that you come suddenly out of the
woodwork."

"Well, (my colleague) David Walsh has covered the last few
Tours (de France). I've been doing other things."

"Well, tell them to send David Walsh then. I'll talk to
him. I respect his work. And I've no problem talking to
Jeremy Whittle (The Times) or William Fotheringham (The
Guardian). But you - you've a bit of a reputation."

I tell him that serious allegations have been made and I'd
like to hear his side of the story.

"That's all [censored]," he says.

"Really? And what about the interview your boss gave a
couple of months ago? It wasn't exactly a ringing
endorsement. Did he tell you I was asking about you at his
press conference yesterday?" "And what's he saying now?"
"He says you're a great champion."

"Yeah, well you'd better take him at his word."

He grabs his bike and begins moving away from the podium.
It seems a good time to compromise. "Okay, maybe this is a
bad time. I don't have to write anything this week. Why
don't we sit down next week and go through it from A to Z,
when things have calmed down?" "No, I'm not talking to
you," he says, pedalling towards the bus, "you can write
whatever you want."

Oh dear, what have I done to upset him?

WHEN it comes to the art of racing a bike, Millar has
always been a class act. It was class that set him apart
during his earliest days at High Wycombe and class that
brought him to the Cofidis team at the tender age of 20,
in 1997.

He could not have entered professional cycling at a worse
time. The abuse of performance-enhancing drugs was
rampant, its drug culture so ingrained that the doping
continued after the Festina scandal in July 1998, when its
rotten core was finally exposed. The following year,
Millar's third as a professional, the Cofidis president,
François Migraine, was worried about some of the rumours
he was hearing, and commissioned a French doctor, Jean-
Christophe Seznec, to conduct a psychiatric analysis of
his team. The results, published later that year in a
French medical journal (Cofidis were not identified), were
frightening.

A number of the team's riders, Seznec concluded, were
showing addictive tendencies towards a sleep-inducing pill
called Stilnox, which was consumed in high doses at
parties, or in hotel rooms between stages. Performance-
enhancing? No, they were abusing the drug for kicks. There
were other trends; relations with prostitutes; use of

Quoted message said:

in food.

And yet, despite the mayhem going on around him, Millar
emerged unscathed. How do we know this? Because the word
on the grapevine was that Millar raced and lived "a
l'eau". He was clean. "It is why I have become such a big
commodity in the sport," he told Walsh in February 2000.
"Teams are looking for guys who can do it naturally.
People within cycling know who is clean and they can tell
from my results that I am." Three years later, nothing
much has changed. Millar is clean - we can tell from his
results - but there have been some strange noises of late,
coming from the so-called "people within who know".

Last January, two weeks after the start of what has become
the "Cofidis affair", Frederique Galametz, a journalist
with L'Equipe, was granted an interview with Migraine in
Paris. The 60-year old Frenchman has never been shy in
front of a microphone, and the more the interview
progressed, the more Galametz found herself glancing at
her recorder, praying its wheels were turning. The team
president's candour was astonishing.

"I wouldn't cut my hand off for any of my riders," he
announced, when the conversation turned to doping and
those he believed were clean, "except, perhaps, for one,
and you know who that is".

"David Moncoutie?" "Yes, everyone is pretty much unanimous
in saying that he takes nothing."

Later in the interview, the spotlight turned to Millar,
the team leader. "Managing a David Millar," Migraine said,
"is no mean feat. I dream of finding a leader tomorrow
like (the former French champion) Charly Mottet who
possessed the four elements that make a good rider but
never touched the fifth. Unfortunately, that doesn't
happen any more."

"How do you mean?" "Mottet had the talent, the mentality,
the healthy lifestyle and the dedication. The fifth
element for me is doping. David has the talent, especially
in the time trials, a good mentality ... and a sometimes
healthy lifestyle, like his dedication ... As far as
doping is concerned, for David (he shrugs his shoulders),
I know nothing . . . As I've already said, I wouldn't be
sure about anyone."

"But you've spoken to him?" Galametz asked.

"What's the point? If I ask him and he says, 'Yes, I
dope', what am I supposed to do? I can't fire him before
the end of his contract but I know and I have to live with
that. I'm in a [censored] that's unmanageable, I've no
solution."

"So you prefer not to know?" "It's better that I
don't know."

The portrait that Gaumont, one of those dismissed by
Cofidis, paints of the aftermath of Millar's Tour de
France stage win in Nantes last year is controversial and
extremely damaging to Millar. "Millar won the last time-
trial and we celebrated that evening with champagne," he
says. "Millar trusts me, and he ordered (Jean-Jacques)
Menuet (the team doctor) to give (Cedric) Vasseur and me
the rest of the preparation he had used that morning with
(Massimiliano) Lelli before the time trial. The next
morning, just before we left the hotel, Vasseur and I went
to Menuet's room at Millar's request . . . It was a
Sunday, the Champs-Elysees stage . . . Menuet injected
each of us with a syringe containing a clear liquid, but
wouldn't say what it was. I think it was cortisone or
growth hormone. He then cut the syringes with a pliers to
dispose of them. 'Tonight,' he said, 'we're going to see
some Cofidis on the telly'."

Vasseur was also pointing fingers when summoned before the
magistrate. In his testimony, he alleged that Gaumont had
come to his room one evening during the last training camp
in Spain and told him he had just seen Millar "doing a
line" of cocaine. "It wasn't actually cocaine," Vasseur
told the judge, "but Stilnox and ephedrine." The
allegation appears again in Gaumont's statement. He also
claimed that Millar had been working with a Spanish doctor
with "a bad reputation".

Menuet and Alain Bondue, the Cofidis general manager, have
since lost their jobs.

On Wednesday, during our brief conversation, Millar
dismissed the allegations as "[censored], but declined to
say more.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 5 (Part 2): Do you believe in divine
intervention? I'm sitting in a car, driving through the
village of Warhem, ahead of the race, when the weirdest
thing happens. I have just passed a banner by the side of
the road that reads "It's Millar Time. Go David!" when
David's sister, Fran, calls my mobile phone. She sounds
charming and seems very concerned that David and I haven't
hit it off.

"There's no problem here," I assure her, "I would much
rather sit down in comfort with David than write anything
this week."

"Why don't you fax your questions to his hotel and we'll
take it from there?" she says.

"No, no," I demur, "he's a big boy now. Let's set up the
interview first."

I agree to send her an e-mail outlining what the interview
will entail. For the next hour, we engage in frantic text.

(Message from Fran) "Hi Paul, my email is ------. Please
include terms and agenda for potential interview. Thanks,
Fran." (Message to Fran) "Fran, my terms are truth and
honesty. No agenda, just the A to Z of his career. Monday
is good for me - anytime, anywhere." (Message from Fran)
"Hopefully that goes without saying - but I will need you
to be more specific than that I'm afraid! Would also like
confirmation that if this is agreed to, it will replace
the piece on Sunday. Call me if you want to discuss."

I call Fran. "I'm not a magician," I say. "There's not
going to be any rabbits coming out of hats. All I want to
do is sit him down and discuss the current allegations and
his career. You are more than welcome to join us. He can
even bring his lawyer."

She insists on a written guarantee that nothing will
appear on Sunday if the interview is agreed for next week.
No problem, I say. We're almost home. Fran does not see
any reason we can't meet on Monday, and she promises she
will speak to David as soon as the stage has finished.
When she calls again, I'm standing on the press podium
opposite the finishing line and can hardly hear a word
with the noise. She says something about the nature of the
investigation and there being a problem: "David's French
lawyers are insisting they see the questions in advance."

I tell her this is not something I can do. An hour later
we reach the endgame. The stage has finished. She's spoken
to David. He hasn't changed his mind.

(Message from Fran) "Sorry we couldn't arrange it this
time, maybe some other time? At the moment David is just
keen to get on with riding his bike. Regards, Fran."
(Message to Fran) "No problem, I understand, the law of
silence is golden."

The next afternoon, the solicitor's fax arrives. I am left
with questions. If Millar's solicitors are correct, and
Cofidis have rid the team of the bad eggs, why was he so
reluctant to talk, and why couldn't he simply tell me that
Migraine's previous laissez-faire attitude had changed and
that the team had rid itself of the drug-takers? And how
could he not have known that others in the team were
doping? Millar may be the victim of damaging allegations
from teammates, but he is not helping himself by refusing
to talk. In the meantime, we await Pallain's judicial
findings.

SOMETIMES the end feels like the beginning. I'm sitting in
a bedroom of a hotel in Calais on a wet Friday evening,
writing a note to Millar. I have decided to send him a
book I wrote in 1989 called Rough Ride, an exposé of
doping in cycling. It documents my own experiences in the
peloton and tells how I came to discover the depressing
realities of life as a pro.

"David, during our brief conversation on Wednesday you
mentioned my 'reputation'. I can only assume you were
thinking of this book. Fran asked me to send you my
questions and I told her that I don't do that. But I have
decided to make an exception. I have a question. What
aspect of the book do you have a problem with? Best
wishes, Paul Kimmage"

Regards! Stephen

Can't fault Millar for not wanting to talk to the guy.
Kimmage sure sounds like he's got his mind made up. Not
exactly the starting point for any investigative journalist.

Kimmage is exactly the poacher turned game-ranger you would
want to sit down with and convince you are clean.

Understandably the interviewee could only answer for
themselves, but team politics (want to ride the TdF ?) and
the continental judicial system might play a larger role in
terms of who is on the "ok" list of press.

"More soup sir ?"

David Cowie said:

Kimmage is exactly the poacher turned game-ranger you
would want to sit down with and convince you are clean.

Understandably the interviewee could only answer for
themselves, but team politics (want to ride the TdF ?) and
the continental judicial system might play a larger role
in terms of who is on the "ok" list of press.

"More soup sir ?"

If you're telling the truth, there's less to remember.
Millar should have had little to fear of having an
interview, with or without his own team present, but keep
a full recorded copy for himself if Kimmage decided to
turn phrases.

"matabala" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Steve McGinty" <[email hidden]> wrote
in message

Can't fault Millar for not wanting to talk to the guy.

That is right.

Quoted message said:

Kimmage sure sounds like he's got his mind made up. Not
exactly the starting point for any investigative
journalist.

LOL, that is an understatement. Look at his book. I am
happy he wrote it, but to present himself as an unbiased
reporter after that is laughable. It is not as if he has a
whole body of work with that book as only one POV in one
situation. The worst part about his view is that he draws
so many conclusions without proof. He chose the role of
muckraker, not one as an unbiased reporter. I remember
reading several years ago that he had decided he would not
cover cycling because he was so upset about his "findings"
on doping. It could be that he softened his position over
time but as far as I know, he only chose to cover cycling
(fairly recently, and definitely post Festina Tour) in
order to expose doping. The guy is clearly the most biased
person in the subject. Disagree with me if you wish, but
then please provide me with a name of someone that is more
extreme in their bias.

"Richard Adams" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

but keep a full recorded copy for himself if Kimmage
decided to turn phrases.

That sounds like fun.

What does he have to gain from talking with someone who
clearly has an ax to grind? Nothing. I am no fan of David
Millar, but this falls into the why you shouldn't wrestle
with a pig bit of folk wisdom - you both end up muddy and
the pig likes it.

"Richard Adams" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

David Cowie said:

Kimmage is exactly the poacher turned game-ranger you
would want to sit down with and convince you are clean.

Understandably the interviewee could only answer for
themselves, but team politics (want to ride the TdF ?)
and the continental judicial system might play a larger
role in terms of who is on the "ok" list of press.

"More soup sir ?"

If you're telling the truth, there's less to remember.
Millar should have had little to fear of having an
interview, with or without his own team present, but keep
a full recorded copy for himself if Kimmage decided to
turn phrases.

I am not saying whether he is clean or not, but there are a
host of reasons to not cooperate even if he is clean. He may
know more than he is willing to talk about and in fact he
may know something that he is now required to not disclose.
There have been people terminated from the team and they may
have negotiated a departure that includes non-disclosure.
That is not as unusual as you might be assuming.

Having a copy of the interview would help close the barn
door after the cow got out, but he has a lot more to
consider than you do. Silence does not equate to guilt.
Clearly the quilty have the strongest motivation to keep
quiet but to imply they are the only ones that due is just
silly. Also note that he agreed to talk with Walsh, who is
one of the more outspoken reporters WRT the doping issue.

"Chris" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

LOL, that is an understatement. Look at his book. I am
happy he wrote it, but to present himself as an unbiased
reporter after that is laughable. It is not as if he has
a whole body of work with that book as only one POV in
one situation. The worst part about his view is that he
draws so many conclusions without proof. He chose the
role of muckraker, not one as an unbiased reporter. I
remember reading several years ago that he had

decided

Quoted message said:

he would not cover cycling because he was so upset about
his "findings" on doping. It could be that he softened his
position over time but as far as

I

Quoted message said:

know, he only chose to cover cycling (fairly recently, and
definitely post Festina Tour) in order to expose doping.
The guy is clearly the most

biased

Quoted message said:

person in the subject. Disagree with me if you wish, but
then please

provide

Quoted message said:

me with a name of someone that is more extreme in
their bias.

Lafferty.

"Tom Kunich" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

"Steve McGinty" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...
(long article)

Paul was pretty balanced, I think. The direct allegations
are the first I've heard anything more than generalities.
I'm afraid that it doesn't look good for David Millar.

The account of Gaumont and Vasseur going to Menuet's room
was in the news April, 9. A couple links:

<eurosport.comsportOpen ↗
Lng0_Spo18_Evt6083_Sto572338.shtml> or
tinyurl.com2bmucOpen ↗

<cbc.capcgiOpen ↗
bin/templates/sportsView.cgi?/news/2004/04/09/Sports/gaumon-
t040409> or tinyurl.com2b7stOpen ↗

"Carl Sundquist" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Chris" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

LOL, that is an understatement. Look at his book. I am
happy he wrote

it,

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

but to present himself as an unbiased reporter after
that is laughable.

It

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

is not as if he has a whole body of work with that book
as only one POV

in

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

one situation. The worst part about his view is that he
draws so many conclusions without proof. He chose the
role of muckraker, not one as an unbiased reporter. I
remember reading several years ago that he had

decided

Quoted message said:

he would not cover cycling because he was so upset about
his "findings"

on

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

doping. It could be that he softened his position over
time but as far

as

Quoted message said:

I

Quoted message said:

know, he only chose to cover cycling (fairly recently,
and definitely

post

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Festina Tour) in order to expose doping. The guy is
clearly the most

biased

Quoted message said:

person in the subject. Disagree with me if you wish, but
then please

provide

Quoted message said:

me with a name of someone that is more extreme in
their bias.

Lafferty.

Boredom leads to trolling, Carl. Try to keep busy. How
about a tape of

"TM" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Richard Adams" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

but keep a full recorded copy for himself if Kimmage
decided to turn phrases.

That sounds like fun.

What does he have to gain from talking with someone who
clearly has an ax

to

Quoted message said:

grind? Nothing. I am no fan of David Millar, but this
falls into the why you shouldn't wrestle with a pig bit of
folk wisdom - you both end up

muddy

Quoted message said:

and the pig likes it.

Then again, Kimmage's Rough Ride won the William Hill Sports
Book of the Year award in 1990 (A fellow named Lance
Armstron won the award in 2000 for his first book).
Kimmage's latest book, Full Time: the Secret Life of Tony
Cascarino, has apparently been very well received.

When Kimmage's Rough Ride was first published he was deemed
anathama by nearly all the riders in the pro peloton. He was
labeled as just a disgruntled no-hoper of a rider with an
axe to grind. Events since then have clearly demonstrated
that what he observed, participated and wrote about, was not
a mere abberation by one of a small group of bad apples in
the sport. Unlike the sport's media promoters (Bobbke,
Sherwin, Liggett, Duffield, etc.) he's an investigative
reporter who is pursuing facts.

While I've read people here attack him for bias, I've not
seen anyone able to factually dispute anything that he wrote
in the article cited at the beginning of this thread.

From David Millar's point of view, it's completely
understandable that he would not want to be interviewd
under circumstances over which he did not have total control--
he did offer to answer written questions submitted in
advance. Not many non-toady reporters will agree to that
kind of journalism. It's going to be an interesting year
for David MIllar.

"B. Lafferty" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Lafferty.

Boredom leads to trolling, Carl. Try to keep busy. How
about a tape of

Quoted message said:

He's here in town today. Maybe I'll ask him for you.

What's your address?

"B. Lafferty" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Boredom leads to trolling, Carl. Try to keep busy. How
about a tape of

Quoted message said:

"It is a horrible demoralizing thing to be a lawyer. You
look for such low motives in everyone and everything." --
Katherine Hinkson