Road Bike Racing - Millar confesses

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2004/jun04/jun25news2

According to Friday's edition of L'Equipe, World Time Trial Champion David Millar (Cofidis) has allegedly confessed to taking EPO. Millar allegedly made the confession to French police while he spent 48 hours in custody in Biarritz this week.

L'Equipe reported that empty ampoules of Eprex (EPO) were found by French police in Millar's house whilst he was being detained, writing "Millar recognised that he used Eprex (erythropoetin) in the practice of his profession which puts him in the same position as a positive rider in the eyes of the UCI."

If this is the case, Millar will likely be charged by Nanterre judge Richard Pallain, who is heading the investigation into the Cofidis team, with illegal possession and use of toxic substances. So far, eight others have been charged in the affair which began early this year: Cédric Vasseur, Philippe Gaumont, Robert Sassone, Médéric Clain, Marek Rutkiewicz and Daniel Majewski (all riders), Boguslaw Madejak (ex-Cofidis physiotherapist), Oleg Kozlitine (former directeur sportif of Oktos).

I guess Phillippe Gaumont isn't a "nutter" after all!

he hasn't been able to ride for a while now right, wasn't he suspended for a bit earlier this year?

poor Phil Ligget will be crushed. . . he loves that guy!

He's been ill.

The more I think about doping in the peloton, the more I'm starting to believe that it is not simply reserved for "lesser" riders and that a lot of the big dogs are probably doping also. They're just doing it better.

Eurosport is reporting it as well. This is getting depressing. I've not been real impressed with Millar but it will just add more fuel to the fire when it comes to allegations against everyone else.

Between this and what's happening with US Track and Field it's getting hard to just be a fan.

If team Cofidis weren't French, they would have been suspended from UCI competition for at least a year. Screw those hypocrites :fight:

I wonder if they can yank his rainbow jersey.

He's been ill.

The more I think about doping in the peloton, the more I'm starting to believe that it is not simply reserved for "lesser" riders and that a lot of the big dogs are probably doping also. They're just doing it better.



Sad, but true: 8 years as a professional, never tested positive.

FYI, at the moment, surprise at home tests are illegal in France, This may be changing soon.


Millar is still going to Athens for the Olympics at the moment. Odd no?



from April 9th

"Millar has always denied any involvement and flatly rejected the idea that systematic or organized doping had taken place. On Friday his manager and sister, Frances Millar, refused to be drawn into the controversy, telling AFP from the Manchester velodrome where Millar will compete in the Olympic-qualifying team pursuit on Saturday: "David's here for the World Cup. We've got nothing to say on the matter."

But Friday's claims by L'Equipe - which also target complicit team managers and a shady Italian doctor in Rome whom Cofidis riders have consulted - will have already taken the shine off the 27-year-old Scot's hopes for a gilt-edged summer.

L'Equipe's claims are based on the testimony of Gaumont to the investigating magistrate in charge of the affair.

According to L'Equipe Gaumont told the inquiry that Millar exerted his influence as team leader when he asked team doctor Jean-Jacques Menuet to inject Gaumont and Cedric Vasseur with the same substance he had been given before winning the time-trial at Nantes in the 2003 Tour de France.

Gaumont did not specify what the substance was other than being a "clear liquid."

"If Menuet agreed to give Vasseur and myself the injections it was because Millar asked him to, and as team leader he had a lot of power over the riders and Menuet," Gaumont was quoted as saying.

Menuet told L'Equipe he could make no comment while the investigation was underway.

Gaumont, who won a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, has been described as a loose cannon by Millar and it is believed he has an axe to grind since being sacked by the team.

Millar told Thursday's edition of the Manchester Guardian that he regarded Gaumont as unstable.

"It's clear to me," Millar said. "There are three or four people in the team who have been complete idiots, but if you go into any work-place environment you will find three or four people who do stupid things, take risks.

"It's scary how a few idiots can put everyone's jobs in danger."

Out of the tour...

http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/6353.0.html

This is getting depressing. .

I agree.
I just found this out, right here, just now. And I am a little shocked. A big name confessing here, after all the team went through.

Things are not looking good, at all.

Another rider who "never tested positive". Hmmmmm.

Another rider who "never tested positive". Hmmmmm.

That's the scary part.

UCI testing procedures seem pretty pathetic at this point.

When you're talking about a sport where you win or lose by less than a minute over the course of weeks of racing, don't you think it is naive to believe people wouldn't do every single thing they could to wring out a second here and a second there?

Doping has long been pervasive in endurance sports. Whether it was cycling’s pep pills in the 40s, 50s and 60s; distance running’s blood doping in the 70s or the newer, more complex drugs of the past 20 years – it’s all about going faster further.

When a guy is looking at the difference between a spot on the podium or finishing way back in the pack, do you really think the nobility of the sport enters his mind? If you do, think again.

Unfortunately drugs are rampant in all sports. Football, basketball, baseball, swimming, track& field, skiiing, where ISN'T there drugs?
The unfortunate part with cycling is that heavy testing and prosecution cannot prevent it

Yeah, it doesn't matter if everyone is doping, or just a few. If an athlete thinks he has to dope because he thinks (or maybe knows) that others are, he will. There's too much at stake for them not to, at least in their mind.

Sad.

I wonder if they can yank his rainbow jersey.

Well, let's not jump into conclusions just yet. I don't really know what the confession was exactly, but this story seems suspect. Do you think Millar would be so stupid to have the stuff around his apartment?
I just don't want to trust the French right off the bet.

Cheers

Millar can't start the Tour, yet there are at least a dozen others who have tested positive, and becuase they have simply served their suspensions, they are racing.

The more I think about doping in the peloton, the more I'm starting to believe that it is not simply reserved for "lesser" riders and that a lot of the big dogs are probably doping also. They're just doing it better.
i doubt it's the whole peloton. secrets are easier kept when they're smaller, and if every rider on every team was doping, i think a lot of the big guys would get caught.

however, millar seems to illutsrate something a former pro once told me. he said that doping was almost always involved when a single event specialist -- a time trialist or a sprinter or a classics rouleur -- becomes a gc contender almost overnight. his opinion was that the guys who aren't on the juice always fade in the last week of a three-week tour.

I just don't want to trust the French right off the bet.
because they're nasty little guys with funny accents and thin little moustaches?

he said that doping was almost always involved when a single event specialist -- a time trialist or a sprinter or a classics rouleur -- becomes a gc contender almost overnight. his opinion was that the guys who aren't on the juice always fade in the last week of a three-week tour.

I'm starting to doubt everyone. I'm a big Rebellin fan. He's shown promise and some results in the past but suddenly found extra super form this spring.

Did we see the real Rebellin?

most of the riders are on drugs it seems, its a shame for the few that are clean though - you have to admire those guys

I'm starting to doubt everyone. I'm a big Rebellin fan. He's shown promise and some results in the past but suddenly found extra super form this spring.

Did we see the real Rebellin?

Considering Rebellin peaked for the classics and is now out of commission basically until later in the season, yes, it was the real Rebellin.
Also, Boogerd was also right there for 2 of the 3 races so was he juked up on epo too?

I don't know but I tend to think Rebellin - who was going to be a monk - isn't juicing. Maybe he is but I have seen nothing from his performances or training to indicate that. If he was winning all season long this year than yeah, I would suspect him but that's not how it went and he has been close for many years in the spring classics so the leap to 1st place was more mental than physical and as all racers know, when you're in the zone, you are on a streak. Don't question it just enjoy it because it goes away just as fast sometimes.

I don't know but I tend to think Rebellin - who was going to be a monk - isn't juicing.

I prefer to consider everyone innocent until proven guilty, but this man, Luc Leblanc, was on track for a career in the clergy until he found out he could ride a bike. He confessed to using EPO. :)