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Reformed Millar torchbearer for drug-free cycling
by Benoit Noel

Feb 1, 2008 (AFP) - The doping-tainted world of professional cycling
can become clean, according to Scottish rider David Millar, himself once
banned for taking EPO but now back racing with the Slipstream team.
Speaking here at the Tour of Qatar, Millar said he believed cycling could
eventually become clean of blood-booster EPO, blood transfusions and other
illegal aids to performance.
“These are not just mere words. I believe at Slipstream there really is a
new way to compete in cycling,” Millar said.
These optimistic comments come from a rider who was banned for two years in
August 2004 for using blood-booster EPO when riding with Cofidis and who was
rectroactively stripped of his 2003 world time-trial victory.
Millar has since repented and has become a torchbearer for a new wave of
professional cyclists who are fighting to bring about a new era in the peloton
without doping.
Former American rider Jonathan Vaughters, now the general manager of
Slipstream, has an approach which rests on the principle of trying to make
sure cyclists are not left to their own devices too much to try and stem any
outside temptations to doping.
That means that outside race days, the riders live together at Gerona,
Spain, for as often as possible where Slipstream has its training base.
“All members of the team, mechanics, doctors, coaches, nutritionists and
physiotherapists live together at the same place. This creates bonds which
allow us to train with a family atmosphere. It’s incredible,” Millar told AFP.
Millar, 30, did not seem to worry about the downside — riders must always
be contactable, are compelled to live far from family, have restricted freedom
and must undergo lots of blood tests.
Millar, a former yellow jersey wearer of the Tour de France, said: “The
pleasure of doing our chosen profession means that you are happy to forget
about certain things.
“Jonathan reminds us often to do our job in an extremely professional
manner but without taking ourselves too seriously.”
Vaughters has set up strict anti-doping conditions, via a laboratory which
analyses riders’ blood every two weeks. “A laboratory which is completely
independent of the team is unique in the peloton,” Millar said.
The American manager said he had no desire to be a saint or shining white
knight. He said instead it was fashionable to be staunchly anti-doping and
that it would be a shame not to make the most of it.
“We have decided to specifically talk about our anti-doping practices to
try and get people talking about us,” adds Vaughters, who is supported
financially by New York billionaire Doug Ellis who is dreaming of having a new
American team at the forefront of a Tour de France.
Slipstream’s entrance into the Tour de France this year could perhaps be
reality for Millar and his team-mates — among others Magnus Backstedt, David
Zabriskie and Christian Vandevelde.
Millar added with a smile: “We have just celebrated our invitation into the
Tour of Italy and now we are only waiting for the green light to race in the
Grand Boucle where he hope to do great things.”