Millar rediscovers form at the last and raises a glass to the future

Published on Monday 28 July 2008 00:41

AS THE peloton raced across the Place de la Concorde for the final time, before swinging on to the Champs-Elysées, a tall, rangy figure in blue and white appeared at its head, stretching the line in a bid to set up his team's sprinter, the New Zealander Julian Dean.

David Millar – for it was he – has had to cope with mysteriously disappearing form in the last ten days, but in the final kilometre of his eighth Tour he seemed to rediscover it. In the end the set-up proved a limited success, with Dean managing sixth on the stage, though Millar didn't quite see the tactic as a failure. "It didn't go wrong," he snapped after crossing the line. "It went great."

Then he was handed a glass of champagne, and his mood brightened. He enjoyed a decent last two days, placing a very respectable fifth on Saturday's time trial, but for the 31-year-old Scot it was a case of what might have been. "The first week was good but in the last two weeks I was getting worse and worse. My form just disappeared. I've never been like that before, so I need to look at what happened."

If the Tour was a personal disappointment, it was a success for his new team, Garmin, of which Millar is a part-owner.

"Considering people weren't convinced we'd get a ride, we've shown we deserve it," said Millar. "We've got eight guys who've finished and all of us showed at the front at some point. I think we can be very proud of ourselves. Christian (Vande Velde]'s fifth overall is the highlight, no doubt about that. He can come next year to try and win."

While Vande Velde was one revelation, Mark Cavendish, with four stage wins, was the other. "Cavendish is a phenomenon," said Millar. "He's going to be around, and winning, for ages. He's the flag bearer, but there are lots of other good British riders coming through. These are exciting times."