David Millar on road to Delhi

"Jesus Christ," said Millar, a fluent French speaker, on being asked what it meant. "It means partridge? I just breezed over it thinking it was some word referring to my new found Classics prowess. I am as concerned as you. This demands an explanation, Auld Alliance or not."

This exchange, via text message, came the morning after Millar, in his hotel north of Paris, sought to explain how, at 33, he appears to have re-invented himself as a potential star of the Classics – the famous one-day "Monuments" which include last Sunday's Tour of Flanders and today's Paris-Roubaix, aka the "Queen of the Classics", or "Hell of the North".

It was a conversation prompted by his performance in Flanders, where Millar astounded Classics veterans by attacking late and going close to challenging for the podium in what was his first proper go at a 260km race which features a brutal succession of cobbled "bergs".

But Millar also revealed that, despite having previously announced his intention to retire in 2012, he has changed his mind. "I'm going to go beyond that, that's for sure. I reckon I'll go on to 2014, and to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. I know I can continue until then. I feel stronger than I've ever felt in my career. In the last couple of weeks I've beaten (Tour de France winner] Alberto Contador in a time trial and been at the front in a Classic. These are things I couldn't do in my twenties."

To the rest of the cycling world Millar's enthusiasm for the Commonwealth Games will come as much of a surprise as his comparison with a partridge*. The interview in L'Equipe didn't mention Delhi. But he is genuine, and may skip this year's world championships to be at his best for the Delhi Games, where he could target three golds, in the pursuit, time trial and road race. "I'm very up for it," said Millar, who was in effect barred for life from the Commonwealth Games after his ban for doping in 2004. Since then he has lent his weight to the anti-doping movement, and sits on the World Anti-Doping Agency's athletes' panel – a fact acknowledged by Commonwealth Games Scotland in December when they confirmed his eligibility. Millar says it would "mean a hell of a lot to compete in Delhi. I feel proud and I feel grateful."

He continues: "The Games are just a week after the word championships in Melbourne, and I haven't decided about the worlds yet, but my priority lies with the Commonwealth Games. It's something I really want to do."

Millar appears to have been re-born this season. After victory over Contador in the Criterium International on Corsica, he travelled to Belgium and won the Three Days of De Panne. Then came Flanders, and a late attack in pursuit of the favourites, Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen. Millar got to within 35 seconds, and was joined by two other riders as Cancellara and Boonen stepped on the gas, with the Swiss winning from the Belgian.

Millar, meanwhile, suffered the dreaded hunger flat in the final 15km. "The lights went out," is how he describes it. While his two companions fought it out for third, Millar was swept up by the chasing group. Yet the positives outweighed any negatives.

"It was a big day out and I was running on empty at the end," he says, reflecting on the race. "I was shaking at the finish. Very rarely have I finished races in that state. So I probably should have tried harder in the past!

"But being in that chase group in the final of the Tour of Flanders, racing for the podium – if you'd told me that last year I'd have thought you were insane. It was a wonderful awakening and I think I'd love to finish my career being a Classics rider."

His appearance today in Paris-Roubaix is only the second of his career, ten years after the first. He didn't finish then, but a recce of the final 90km on Thursday suggests he intends to right that. First run in 1896, Paris-Roubaix's notoriety owes to its 28 sections of rough cobbles, or pav, many laid during Napolean's time.

Millar's verdict on some of these? "Mental!" he says.

*Apparently the perdreau reference relates to a comment directed by former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin at Jacques Chirac, and may be ageist. Millar offered no further comment.