robert millarrobert millar

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palmares | a funny guy | the stolen vuelta | a peiper's tale |the spanish years |
honour| the small yin | setting the record straight | millar on motorbikes | the book |
robert millar colnago c40 review | training | the outsider |
2008 interview | british road champion | the 2011 tour de France

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winning magazine march 1988. interview by kenny pryde

robert millar

it could be argued, with some conviction, that robert millar has not always enjoyed the most cordial relations with the press and media. some of the stories which have appeared have clearly not impressed him - either in terms of their accuracy, or in terms of the impression of the man they have created. such experiences have led to a degree of circumspection in his dealings with the press which some commentators have taken as irrefutable proof for his apparently 'difficult' personality. clearly, given the nature of print, there are times when distortion is inevitable. in the transfer from tape recorder to typeface the nuances of speech and intonation are lost - as are the myriad of gestures which accompnay even the most mundane of conversations. on paper, how exactly does one indicate the significance of a raised eyebrow or a half smile which always ads to the clarirty of the face-to-face encounter? devoid of these markers, and given the playfully malicious streak which is inevitably present in scottish banter, it is perhaps not too suprirsing that certain 'misunderstandings' develop. winning magazine spoke to robert early in january, a few days before he was due to fly to san sebastian for the new fagor team presentation. as if to finally put to rest his 'difficult' image, we found him in an arena which many would not have expected - participating in a residential coaching weekend. held at the university of stirling campus, it was organised by his former scottish international temmate (now scottish road team manager) sandy gilchrist. during the weekend, he patiently answered a variety of questions with candour and humour, recounting various episodes from both his professional and amateur careers. more usefully, in terms of the coaching programme, he was able to offer valuable advice on power training, weight training and general pre-season conditioning. in between these seminars he was, inevitably, called upon to pose for photographs and fagor jerseys - destined, no doubt, never to be washed again.

in between his busy schedule of talks he found the time to discuss, at some length, his 1987 season which had begun with a flourish, descended into acrimony and ended in near anonymity. millar's 1987, whichever way you look at it, was one which prompted a number of questions which, in the event, he was happy to answer. intitially we talked about his public image and the effect which increased publicity had on him personally.

winning: would you say that there was more pressure on you now that the tour is covered by british tv?

millar: no, it's just the same, the only difference is that maybe they'll come to you first and ask if i want to go and do an interview with them, which is more likely than the french or spanish tv or whatever. for me there is no difference.

winning: the thing is, there is obviously a need for you to becoem a sports personality rather than just a bike-rider. have you felt that?

millar: well, once you get to a certain level, there's a lot of public relations involved. but it depends on your character - whether you like talking to the media or not - but when you get to a certain level, then you have to do it because then it's part of your job; it is part of what you are expected to do. your job is not just to ride as well as you can and win races, but also to promote your sponsor.

winning: how would you describe your own relationship with the press and media?

millar: hmmm... i don't like to talk to the press that much. but then, when i do go to talk to them, i don't talk a lot of crap, but they go away and write it anyway. i dont think i've got any enemies in the media or press - but i have few friends. i feel i do my job as best i can, but sometimes i have to deal with these guys who i don;t feel are competent to do their job. they are doing it just because it's nine to five. it's not because they really want to do it - and you immediately get that feeling from them. it's just another ten questions to another rider, and when it's like that i don't like to answer their questions because they are wasting my time.

winning: do you feel as though you have been fairly represented by the media throughout your career, like the story about you seeing the tour on a tv in a rental shop window...

millar:i wasn't pleased when i heard that - it makes you sound like you come from the third world. like i have said before - we don't live in caves in glasgow anymore.

winning: the other recent story, which caused a lot of upset in glasgow, was the stuff about glasgow being an utterly grey place where there were no flowers or trees. what was that about?

millar: well, where i came from it was partly true, but maybe now it's different. but 20 years ago in the gorbals there weren't any trees or greenery. i said to that journalist that for me it was a big occasion when we went to queens park. i used to go up there on the bus with my mother and it would be something special because there were no trees in the middle of the gorbals. he interpreted it the worst way he could, the way he wanted to write it. i couldn't deny that my childhood was grey; i remember it myself as grey. but i wasn't unhappy. it's not that i wasn't proud to come from glasgow which a lot of people thought i was - or badmouthing glasgow, or saying it was too bad that i hadn't come from paris or somewhere. that wasn't it; it was just my childhood i remember as being grey.

winning: that's all in the past now and hopefully we have finally put those myths to rest. if we can talk about last season as a whole now, before moving on to more specific races, how important is it for you, in assessing your season, to do good rides in other races?

millar: it all depends on the race. if the race counts for the super prestige pernod trophy, well then it's important to do a good ride, it's the same with the classics. but the rest of the races you are only there because it is a team obligation.

winning: how did you feel about the rides you did last season, in the fleche-wallone and at liege-bastogne-liege?

robert millar

millar: pleased

winning: what happened at liege when you, yvon madiot and moreno argentin got up to roche and claude criquielion very late in the race? you were riding strongly that day.

millar: well, the thing was that peter post wanted as many points as he could for the world cup (season long competition for the best team), so we had to keep riding because argentin wasn't doing any work and he didn't do any work. so we were riding along to keep away from the group behind us, not to catch criquielion or roche. but they started wasting their time, we caught them and argentin won the sprint - which should never have happened. there would have been no story behind liege-bastogne-liege if post hadn't said it was important for his points for the world cup - i wouldn't have ridden because argentin wouldn't work.

winning: twelfth in the fleche and fifth at liege - those were the best results you have ever had at these races. was that the way your season was geared up?

millar: yeah, that's the way that the trainer i was using had programmed it. ludwig van de putte, who was phil anderson's trainer, came to the team for a year and organised my training for those races. post wanted me to do good rides in the classics and that's the way it came out. i rode reasonably in the fleche wallone - i wasn't really good - but two days later i was riding well.

winning: you have said previously that you prefer to race in spain than in italy. did riding the giro last season cause you to change your mind.

millar: i still prefer to ride the tour of spain rather than the tour of italy - but that doesn't mean that the tour of spain is a better race. the tour of italy is better than the tour de france from a rider's point of view: it's better organised. from the organisational point of view, the tour of spain is the worst of the big three races. from the racing point of view though, i like the style of racing in spain better because you do what you want every day. it gets a bit out of hand because nobody seems to have any control over the race except the riders, and even then sometimes they don't seem to know what they are doing.

winning: what in the giro surprised you?

millar: i had never seen anything else like it. it was completely different from what i expected it to be. it was a bit like being on holiday, not like the tour de france or spain. partly because there was no media pressure on me, as there is in the tour de france. in the giro there is no pressure.

winning: do the italian press concentrate solely on the italian riders then?

millar: well, no, not really - it's just the way the race is organised. there aren;t so many people on the race, although there are as many italian journalists as there are french ones. there isn't the same coverage from the other countries, and the italians don't have the same approach to the race either. there isn;t the same fight over the riders at the end of the stage - things like that - the race is more organised. you get a feeling from the race itself that it's a little bit less important. it is important, but it's not the end of the world like it is in the tour de france. you get the impression in the tour that the guy who wins the stage is going to get run over, whereas in the giro it is a little bit more restrained.

winning: what about the route and the racing in the giro?

millar: it's not as hard as the tour of spain and the tour of spain isn't as generally as hard as the tour de france, but it depends on the year. the first year i rode the tour of spain (1985) it was harder than the tour de france, a harder with mountains every day. in 1986 they made it less hard but it was still harder than the giro i rode last year. in the giro if it's hard the next day they have a flat day, unlike the tour de france with three days in the alps or two days in the pyrenees then a day in the massif central when you are going up and down all day.

winning: fourth and king of the mountains in the tour de france or second and king of the mountains in the giro - would you say that the ride you did in the tour was better?

millar: yeah, to finish fourth in the tour is better for me personally than to finish second in the giro, even though the performances i put up on both occasions were roughly equal from a physical point of view. for prestige it's better to be king of the mountains in the tour than the giro.

winning: would you be content with a repetition of the result of the 1987 giro?

millar: yeah, it was ok, to finish second. but i wasn't at the giro with any personal intentions of doing anything. i was there to help anderson; but, because of the circumstances of racing, i ended up riding for g.c.

winning: in a recent interview in the 'miroir du cyclisme' roche said that he had some assistance from old friends in the course of the giro. would you be included in that?

millar: yes, they had a lot of problems with crowd control in the mountain stages, and i'd been in the same situation myself in spain, not as serious as it was in italy the day after stephen had taken the jersey from visentini - people were really hostile and i'd never seen anything like it before. something similar in spain yes, but only in isolated pockets of maybe ten or 20 peaople in a certain place, but not two or three thousand people all waiting on a mountain just to beat the shit out of you and spit on you. well, i rode at the front and steve rode in the middle of the group, which was the only thing he could do. but it wasn't for that reason that steve won the race. even if i had attacked, he would still have come with us, it wouldn't have made a difference. besides, i couldn't see any advantage for any team if someone hit roche and myself or breukink or visentini had won - there wouldn;t have been any prestige, they wouldn;t have got anything out of a victory like that. people would just have said that they only won because some maniac hit steve. it was only one day it was really hostile and after that it wasn't so dangerous, even on the last mountain. a lot of stories came out saying we had ridden for him because he was in the middle of the group; but when you see two thousand people wanting to beat up a guy you've known for ten years you say, 'wait a minute!' i wasn't going to ride away from him up the hill because he had schepers with him anyway. schepers was probably riding better than we were that day, so if steve rode in the middle, well - that was that.

winning: would you ride the giro again?

millar: well, hopefully not theis year, maybe next year. i don't know, it depends. it's not something that attracts me. i'd rather go to the tour of spain, as i've said before, i like spain, i feel more comfortable there, even though the giro has more prestige and it is a superior race in some ways.

winning: was it during the giro when you thought of moving or talked about moving to fagor - because stephen was obviously going to leave carrera?

millar: from then on it was obvious he wasn't going to stay with carrera, but i didn't know what he was going to do. after the race was over we talked a little bit about maybe riding together the next year, but there was nothing definite from fagor or anything. even at the time of the giro they were saying that i was going to carrera - with roche.

robert millar

winning: so it was after the tour de france...?

millar: already during the tour it was common knowledge that discussions were taking place. everybody that matters is at the tour - it's the only time you see some of them if they want to talk to you. other teams will say 'can we come and talk?' and you say yes or no depending on whether or not you are interested. you give them a telephone number and they contact you after the tour when you usually decide it all, depending on the circumstances you have ensured - if you've been good then you don;t have any problems, if you've not been so good then you've got to haggle a little.

winning: because you didn't have a super tour in 1987, a lot of people maybe thought that you didn't have a gret year, but that's not the case is it?

millar: i had a normal year for me, the only thin was that my form was good a month earlier than would have been best. i think you learn every year from what you do, and now i've learned that i don't want to ride two major tours in a year. i've tried it three years in a row, and every time i've gone to the second i've got tired after ten days or so.

winning: you rode only the tour de france in 1984 - your best tour performance?

millar: yeah, i only rode the tour de france that year and this season that's what has been programmed. the thing is that the tour de france has become so important now that if you don't do a good ride in the tour then everybody thinks you've ridden badly all year. what's happening now is that soon you're whole season is going to be focused on the tour de france and the other races will become less important.

winning: about the tour last year, everyone heard that you fell out with post...

millar: i did (laugh)...

winning:...but we never had it explained.

millar: it's difficult, because i can't really explain it myself - it was just that communication fell apart. the day the rain came down on the tour (from tarbes to blagnac) the relationship got a bit strained. the next day things didn't go well because i wasn't feeling so good. i didn't appreciate some of the things that post said to me during the race and i probably made the mistake of telling him i didn't appreciate them, and from then on there was no communication between us. from there (millau) things went from bad to worse. but it came basically from a clash of personalities - if i have something to say, then i normally say it - which can be a mistake in certain situations. post likes te riders to accept what he says - if he says something to you that you don;t like, then he expects you just to take it in. he had the same problem with phil (anderson) i think. he would say something to phil, and phil would say, 'no i don't think it's like that'. it's a different mentality that post has. it's not that he's a bad directeur sportif. it's just that the way he wants things to be done is not always the way i think would be best for me. maybe it's best for the other guys, and it works well in the majority of cases. but there is always a minority it doesn't work with, and i found myself in the minority and that was it.

winning: your contract with panasonic was up at the end of the season anyway, wasn't it?

millar: yes, it wasn't a case of him kicking me out or me leaving - it was a mutual thing. when it was over, it was over and that's it.

winning: last year, after the tour and the world's, at the tour of piedmont and the tour of lombardy - how were you going?

millar: i wasn't riding well in them. i had enough of the year, enough of the problems i was having. when it gets to september, everyone has had enough of riding, they(piedmont/lombardy) become just another couple of races. i tried to prepare for the lombardy, but i could feel physically that i didn't have anything left to give and i just didn't want to do it anymore. so it was like beating my head against a brick wall.

winning: to what extent has your racing programme been organised for the coming season?

millar: well, normally i should start fairly early in february - it's not important that i ride good anywhere - i just have to go, ride around, train, try to stay out of the pressure. and then seriously the season starts at the end of march or the beginning of april. i have to be on form for the tour of romandy, the dauphine libere (may-june), the midi-libre and the tour de france.

winning: what do you envisage your position being within the team?

millar: number tow. i don't even have any thoughts about being number one. steve is number one - that's it. when i talk to steve about riding with him, he also knew that i wasn't going there with the intentions of being number one. in the races where he doesn't want to ride flat out - maybe the tour of romandy - i'll be number one for that time. for the big races he is the one who has to win, and if it means me putting my head on the block on a certain day, then it won't be a problem.

winning: have you seen this year's tour route?

millar: yeah, i've seen it. the time trials pleased me because they weren't as long, but i don't like it when it goes round clockwise - but then again, when it comes to the mountains, it's near the end anyway. so if you are riding well, the decision has already been made. the outcome of the tour de france is always made in the mountains anyway.

winning: what about the world's circuit this year then? it's the same circuit that van impe won the belgian national road championship on in 1983.

millar: yes, it's a hard circuit, harder than last year's.

winning: what was that like?

millar: it was a strength thing, a wearing down process. there was no real difficultty on the circuit; there was never a decision made at a certain point. you couldn't make a decisive move anywhere on the circuit. there was nowhere to do that sort of thing - it was hard, but not difficult.

winning: will you be looking to do a good ride then?

millar: normally i know how to prepare myself for the one-day race and i want to do a good ride there - but you can never tell how you are going until you come out of the tour de france. when you finish that and you are still good, then, after a rest, you can start preparing for the world's.

so robert millar is about to tackle his sixth season, riding in a team which he has confidence in, with less pressure on him than for many years. his main aim for the season? to improve on his 1984 tour performance and win the mountain jersey again - 'just to prove it wasn't a one-off.'

thanks to lance sanderson for supplying the original copy of htis interview

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palmares | a funny guy | the stolen vuelta | a peiper's tale |the spanish years |
honour| the small yin | setting the record straight | millar on motorbikes | the book |
robert millar colnago c40 review | training | the outsider |
2008 interview | british road champion | the 2011 tour de France

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