Wiggins says Millar ban should stand

The Scottish rider was banned for doping in 2004 and is subject to a lifetime ban by the British Olympic Association (BOA) despite returning to the sport two years later. The BOA is the only national committee in the world still imposing a lifetime Olympic ban on athletes who have served a doping suspension of six months or longer.

Their hardline stance has been deemed “non-compliant” with the World Anti-Doping Agency’s global code and the case is set to be decided by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Mark Cavendish recently expressed his hope Millar will be able to take part in the London Olympics this summer, although Wiggins does not share his view.

“To have David in our team purely from a performance point of view would be fantastic for Mark trying to win the Olympic road race,” he said, at the launch of the 2012 Team Sky squad in London yesterday.

“It would take the pressure off me having to do a massive job that day for Mark to win because then I can think about the time trial. So from a purely selfish point of view, it would be fantastic to have Dave on the start line.

“But from a moral point of view, from what cycling is trying to achieve, from what cycling’s been through the last few years, for what the Olympics stand for, he should never be able to do the Olympics again.

“It is like a mixed camp. I don’t have an opinion on it, I don’t really care about it any more to be honest. I used to care about that sort of stuff and then I used to worry myself sick about what I should say on it and what I shouldn’t.

“Then I just got asked more questions about it. I just concentrate on myself now. Cycling has been so messed up in the past with the ongoing cases, [Alberto] Contador and things like this.

“The fact that we’re still talking about it nearly nine years after Dave first got banned for it I think shows how behind the times perhaps we are at times with these things.

“A decision needs to be made either way. If there’s an inkling that someone can get back in, then there’s already a fault in the system somewhere.”

Despite his comments on Millar’s predicament, Wiggins insists he is not reading off a completely different script to Cavendish. “I don’t disagree with him,” he said. “I think Mark agrees with what I say, really.

“From purely thinking of Mark winning the Olympic road race, he should be in that team with us. He was at the World Championships and has been competing with Great Britain for the past five or six years now.

“If he is eligible, he is eligible and we will use him. If he is not eligible, he is not eligible. I don’t think it really matters what anyone’s opinion is because opinions don’t really mean anything any more.”

Cavendish heads a ten-strong British contingent in the Team Sky squad for 2012.

The Manxman, who won five stages on last year’s Tour, has been recruited from HTC-Highroad along with Bernhard Eisel, Danny Pate and Kanstantsin Siutsou, four of eight new additions in the 28-man roster.

Criterium du Dauphine winner and three-time Olympic goal-medallist Wiggins, Chris Froome – who finished second, one place ahead of Wiggins, in last year’s Vuelta a Espana – Geraint Thomas, Jeremy Hunt, Peter Kennaugh, Alex Dowsett, Luke Rowe, Ian Stannard and Ben Swift complete the British contingent.

Team principal Dave Brailsford said: “With Mark Cavendish joining riders like Bradley Wiggins, Geraint Thomas and Edvald Boasson Hagen, we have a hugely talented squad of riders with proven ability at the very highest level of our sport.”

Cavendish added: “I could not be more excited about the coming season. In many ways it has felt like coming home, by joining Team Sky. I’ve grown up with many of the riders and management and they have shown in just two years how far they have come.”