2000 THE RIDE OF THE LIFE
TWENTY YEARS AGO, DAVID MILLAR MADE A SPECTACULAR TOUR DEBUT, WINNING YELLOW ON DAY ONE. IN CONVERSATI ON WITH PROCYCLING ’ SEDITOR EDWARD PICKERING, HE LOOKS BACK ON THE END OF INNOCENCE
PROCYCLING: IT’S BEEN 20 YEARS, DAVID. WHAT’S YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON THAT NOW? WHEN YOU LOOK BACK, WHAT DO YOU SEE? DAVID MILLAR: How young I was, more than anything. I was a baby.
That ride was all the stars aligning. Everything aligned, from the moment three and a half years before in Saint-Quentin, when Cyrille Guimard [Cofidis manager] took me out to lunch when I was an amateur. He told me my first Tour de France would be in 2000.
Guimard was convinced that I was a proper contender. But he also said, we have to wait until you are 23. I was like, f*ck, that’s ages.
I wanted to do it in 1999, but they wouldn’t let me. So when I got to 2000 and - this is where serendipity kicks in - the first day was a 10-mile time trial, it was, like, are you f*cking serious? That’s my bread and butter. When I first raced in the UK I was doing 10-mile time trials.
Although the Tour de France was huge, when we look back at 2000, it’s tiny compared to now. But coming up to that first stage in Futuroscope and a 10-mile time trial, I felt, ‘I know how to do this. I literally know how to do this.’
I was so relaxed before I rolled off the start ramp. I was at the barriers signing autographs. Jean-Marie Leblanc [Tour
