Kimmage on David Millar

Steve McGinty

... from the (London) Sunday Times

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspa...1103271,00.html

(Long article - don't think you have to subscribe - if you do let me
know and I'll post it)



Regards!
Stephen

Ewoud Dronkert

On Mon, 10 May 2004 18:50:58 +0100, Steve McGinty wrote:
>(Long article - don't think you have to subscribe - if you do let me
>know and I'll post it)

From outside the UK, yes: "The area you wish to access is behind
registration."

Steve McGinty

On Mon, 10 May 2004 20:19:38 +0200, Ewoud Dronkert <me@privacy.net>
wrote:

>On Mon, 10 May 2004 18:50:58 +0100, Steve McGinty wrote:
>>(Long article - don't think you have to subscribe - if you do let me
>>know and I'll post it)
>
>From outside the UK, yes: "The area you wish to access is behind
>registration."

Okay - pretty extensive use of quotes and italics, so don't know how
it will read...

"Cycling: Rider in the storm
PAUL KIMMAGE
Top British cyclist David Millar wants to move on from his team’s
doping scandal but the questions are not going away

In February, the new cycling season began with five past and present
riders from the Cofidis team, along with the team masseur, under
investigation for drug trafficking. The rider Philippe Gaumont was one
of those who gave evidence. Last month, huge extracts of the cyclist’s
testimony to the investigating magistrate, Richard Pallain, were
leaked to L’Equipe.
In it, Britain’s David Millar — the Cofidis team leader, world
time-trial champion and Tour de France stage winner — was implicated
in a doping scandal.

It is Tuesday, May 4, and I am sitting in a bedroom of a hotel in
Calais, staring at my mobile phone. I have just sent a note to Millar
and am anxiously awaiting his call ...

“David, in a recent interview with Procycling (magazine) you mentioned
your frustration at the lack of coverage you’ve been getting in the
mass media.The stage is yours. I’ve a lot of interesting questions for
you.

“Regards...”

The afternoon stretches into evening. I call his room, but there is no
reply. Two days later, a fax arrives from the office of his London
solicitors.

“Dear Sir, “We act for David Millar. It has come to our client’s
attention that your newspaper may be about to publish an article about
our client and the Cofidis cycling team. You will be aware that
several ex-members of the Cofidis team are being investigated by the
French judicial authority in connection with the use of banned
substances. Our client is not under investigation and has gone on
record to say that he has never used banned substances. Furthermore,
we understand that the Cofidis team have dismissed any person whom
they had any suspicion of being involved with banned substances and
accordingly, no current members of the team are being investigated or
are under suspicion. If you publish any suggestion that our client has
taken banned substances we will bring legal proceedings for libel
against you.

“Yours faithfully ...”

WEDNESDAY, MAY 5 (Part 1): It’s 11.30 on a cold, grey morning in
Dunkirk, and I am standing outside the Hotel de Ville as the deluxe
camping car carrying Millar and his seven Cofidis teammates arrives
for the opening stage of the Quatre Jours de Dunkirk. Two TV crews and
a handful of journalists have gathered in the square to monitor their
arrival. Since January, the team has been rocked by doping
allegations, and Dunkirk marks its return to competition after a month
of self-imposed suspension.

Millar is first off the bus. He signs a couple of autographs and
follows his teammates to the podium, where they are introduced to the
crowd. In 1986, in what seems a different life, I stood where he
stands now. I earned my living as a professional bike rider, the
toughest job in sport. Millar has just finished a short TV interview
when I introduce myself. I tell him I work for this newspaper.

It’s starting to rain; an icy wind is blowing through the square. He
accepts my hand, but does not seem pleased to meet me. “What are the
chances of sitting down with you at some stage this week?” I ask.

He thinks about it: “Emm, pretty slim, to be honest.”

“Is that a slim ‘yes’ or a slim ‘no’?” “It depends what you want to
talk about; cycling or doping.”

“I want to talk about your career and the allegations that have been
made about you.”

“You want to talk about my career! I’ve been a pro for eight years and
you’ve never spoken to me once. I just find it strange that you come
suddenly out of the woodwork.”

“Well, (my colleague) David Walsh has covered the last few Tours (de
France). I’ve been doing other things.”

“Well, tell them to send David Walsh then. I’ll talk to him. I respect
his work. And I’ve no problem talking to Jeremy Whittle (The Times) or
William Fotheringham (The Guardian). But you — you’ve a bit of a
reputation.”

I tell him that serious allegations have been made and I’d like to
hear his side of the story.

“That’s all bullshit,” he says.

“Really? And what about the interview your boss gave a couple of
months ago? It wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement. Did he tell you I
was asking about you at his press conference yesterday?” “And what’s
he saying now?” “He says you’re a great champion.”

“Yeah, well you’d better take him at his word.”

He grabs his bike and begins moving away from the podium. It seems a
good time to compromise. “Okay, maybe this is a bad time. I don’t have
to write anything this week. Why don’t we sit down next week and go
through it from A to Z, when things have calmed down?” “No, I’m not
talking to you,” he says, pedalling towards the bus, “you can write
whatever you want.”

Oh dear, what have I done to upset him?

WHEN it comes to the art of racing a bike, Millar has always been a
class act. It was class that set him apart during his earliest days at
High Wycombe and class that brought him to the Cofidis team at the
tender age of 20, in 1997.

He could not have entered professional cycling at a worse time. The
abuse of performance-enhancing drugs was rampant, its drug culture so
ingrained that the doping continued after the Festina scandal in July
1998, when its rotten core was finally exposed. The following year,
Millar’s third as a professional, the Cofidis president, François
Migraine, was worried about some of the rumours he was hearing, and
commissioned a French doctor, Jean-Christophe Seznec, to conduct a
psychiatric analysis of his team. The results, published later that
year in a French medical journal (Cofidis were not identified), were
frightening.

A number of the team’s riders, Seznec concluded, were showing
addictive tendencies towards a sleep-inducing pill called Stilnox,
which was consumed in high doses at parties, or in hotel rooms between
stages. Performance-enhancing? No, they were abusing the drug for
kicks. There were other trends; relations with prostitutes; use of
Viagra; an initiation rite for new riders that included planting drugs
in food.

And yet, despite the mayhem going on around him, Millar emerged
unscathed. How do we know this? Because the word on the grapevine was
that Millar raced and lived “a l’eau”. He was clean. “It is why I have
become such a big commodity in the sport,” he told Walsh in February
2000. “Teams are looking for guys who can do it naturally. People
within cycling know who is clean and they can tell from my results
that I am.” Three years later, nothing much has changed. Millar is
clean — we can tell from his results — but there have been some
strange noises of late, coming from the so-called “people within who
know”.

Last January, two weeks after the start of what has become the
“Cofidis affair”, Frederique Galametz, a journalist with L’Equipe, was
granted an interview with Migraine in Paris. The 60-year old Frenchman
has never been shy in front of a microphone, and the more the
interview progressed, the more Galametz found herself glancing at her
recorder, praying its wheels were turning. The team president’s
candour was astonishing.

“I wouldn’t cut my hand off for any of my riders,” he announced, when
the conversation turned to doping and those he believed were clean,
“except, perhaps, for one, and you know who that is”.

“David Moncoutie?” “Yes, everyone is pretty much unanimous in saying
that he takes nothing.”

Later in the interview, the spotlight turned to Millar, the team
leader. “Managing a David Millar,” Migraine said, “is no mean feat. I
dream of finding a leader tomorrow like (the former French champion)
Charly Mottet who possessed the four elements that make a good rider
but never touched the fifth. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen any
more.”

“How do you mean?” “Mottet had the talent, the mentality, the healthy
lifestyle and the dedication. The fifth element for me is doping.
David has the talent, especially in the time trials, a good mentality
.... and a sometimes healthy lifestyle, like his dedication ... As far
as doping is concerned, for David (he shrugs his shoulders), I know
nothing . . . As I’ve already said, I wouldn’t be sure about anyone.”

“But you’ve spoken to him?” Galametz asked.

“What’s the point? If I ask him and he says, ‘Yes, I dope’, what am I
supposed to do? I can’t fire him before the end of his contract but I
know and I have to live with that. I’m in a shit that’s unmanageable,
I’ve no solution.”

“So you prefer not to know?” “It’s better that I don’t know.”

The portrait that Gaumont, one of those dismissed by Cofidis, paints
of the aftermath of Millar’s Tour de France stage win in Nantes last
year is controversial and extremely damaging to Millar. “Millar won
the last time-trial and we celebrated that evening with champagne,” he
says. “Millar trusts me, and he ordered (Jean-Jacques) Menuet (the
team doctor) to give (Cedric) Vasseur and me the rest of the
preparation he had used that morning with (Massimiliano) Lelli before
the time trial. The next morning, just before we left the hotel,
Vasseur and I went to Menuet’s room at Millar’s request . . . It was a
Sunday, the Champs-Elysees stage . . . Menuet injected each of us with
a syringe containing a clear liquid, but wouldn’t say what it was. I
think it was cortisone or growth hormone. He then cut the syringes
with a pliers to dispose of them. ‘Tonight,’ he said, ‘we’re going to
see some Cofidis on the telly’.”

Vasseur was also pointing fingers when summoned before the magistrate.
In his testimony, he alleged that Gaumont had come to his room one
evening during the last training camp in Spain and told him he had
just seen Millar “doing a line” of cocaine. “It wasn’t actually
cocaine,” Vasseur told the judge, “but Stilnox and ephedrine.” The
allegation appears again in Gaumont’s statement. He also claimed that
Millar had been working with a Spanish doctor with “a bad reputation”.

Menuet and Alain Bondue, the Cofidis general manager, have since lost
their jobs.

On Wednesday, during our brief conversation, Millar dismissed the
allegations as “bullshit, but declined to say more.


WEDNESDAY, MAY 5 (Part 2): Do you believe in divine intervention? I’m
sitting in a car, driving through the village of Warhem, ahead of the
race, when the weirdest thing happens. I have just passed a banner by
the side of the road that reads “It’s Millar Time. Go David!” when
David’s sister, Fran, calls my mobile phone. She sounds charming and
seems very concerned that David and I haven’t hit it off.

“There’s no problem here,” I assure her, “I would much rather sit down
in comfort with David than write anything this week.”

“Why don’t you fax your questions to his hotel and we’ll take it from
there?” she says.

“No, no,” I demur, “he’s a big boy now. Let’s set up the interview
first.”

I agree to send her an e-mail outlining what the interview will
entail. For the next hour, we engage in frantic text.

(Message from Fran) “Hi Paul, my email is ------. Please include terms
and agenda for potential interview. Thanks, Fran.” (Message to Fran)
“Fran, my terms are truth and honesty. No agenda, just the A to Z of
his career. Monday is good for me — anytime, anywhere.” (Message from
Fran) “Hopefully that goes without saying — but I will need you to be
more specific than that I’m afraid! Would also like confirmation that
if this is agreed to, it will replace the piece on Sunday. Call me if
you want to discuss.”

I call Fran. “I’m not a magician,” I say. “There’s not going to be any
rabbits coming out of hats. All I want to do is sit him down and
discuss the current allegations and his career. You are more than
welcome to join us. He can even bring his lawyer.”

She insists on a written guarantee that nothing will appear on Sunday
if the interview is agreed for next week. No problem, I say. We’re
almost home. Fran does not see any reason we can’t meet on Monday, and
she promises she will speak to David as soon as the stage has
finished. When she calls again, I’m standing on the press podium
opposite the finishing line and can hardly hear a word with the noise.
She says something about the nature of the investigation and there
being a problem: “David’s French lawyers are insisting they see the
questions in advance.”

I tell her this is not something I can do. An hour later we reach the
endgame. The stage has finished. She’s spoken to David. He hasn’t
changed his mind.

(Message from Fran) “Sorry we couldn’t arrange it this time, maybe
some other time? At the moment David is just keen to get on with
riding his bike. Regards, Fran.” (Message to Fran) “No problem, I
understand, the law of silence is golden.”

The next afternoon, the solicitor’s fax arrives. I am left with
questions. If Millar’s solicitors are correct, and Cofidis have rid
the team of the bad eggs, why was he so reluctant to talk, and why
couldn’t he simply tell me that Migraine’s previous laissez-faire
attitude had changed and that the team had rid itself of the
drug-takers? And how could he not have known that others in the team

Robert Chung

Steve McGinty wrote:
>
> Okay - pretty extensive use of quotes and italics, so don't know how
> it will read...
>
> "Cycling: Rider in the storm
> PAUL KIMMAGE
> Top British cyclist David Millar wants to move on from his team's
> doping scandal but the questions are not going away

[snip]

Thanks. Interesting. Seems to me Millar probably was wise to decline the
interview.

Steve McGinty

On Mon, 10 May 2004 21:15:51 +0200, "Robert Chung" <me2@privacy.net>
wrote:

>Steve McGinty wrote:
>>
>> Okay - pretty extensive use of quotes and italics, so don't know how
>> it will read...
>>
>> "Cycling: Rider in the storm
>> PAUL KIMMAGE
>> Top British cyclist David Millar wants to move on from his team's
>> doping scandal but the questions are not going away
>
>[snip]
>
>Thanks. Interesting. Seems to me Millar probably was wise to decline the
>interview.
>
I've got a lot of time for Kimmage - "Rough Ride" is superb - but on
this occasion I think you might be right.

Interesting to compare this with the McGee interview I posted
previously - I think the main difference may be an interviewer with a
"history" and one one who (although an elite) didn't progress to the
pro-ranks.

Regards!
Stephen

Tom Kunich

"Steve McGinty" <steve_DOT_mcginty@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:42jv90p6gokntgntfn4hs07uv9n0mtdqrt@4ax.com...
(long article)

Paul was pretty balanced, I think. The direct allegations are the first I've
heard anything more than generalities. I'm afraid that it doesn't look good
for David Millar.

Jay Hill

Steve McGinty wrote:
> On Mon, 10 May 2004 20:19:38 +0200, Ewoud Dronkert <me@privacy.net>
> wrote:
>
>
>>On Mon, 10 May 2004 18:50:58 +0100, Steve McGinty wrote:
>>
>>>(Long article - don't think you have to subscribe - if you do let me
>>>know and I'll post it)
>>
>>From outside the UK, yes: "The area you wish to access is behind
>
>>registration."
>
>
> Okay - pretty extensive use of quotes and italics, so don't know how
> it will read...
>
> "Cycling: Rider in the storm
> PAUL KIMMAGE
> Top British cyclist David Millar wants to move on from his team’s
> doping scandal but the questions are not going away

Pretty much "and when did you stop beating your wife?" kind of stuff.

Richard Adams

Tom Kunich wrote:

> "Steve McGinty" <steve_DOT_mcginty@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
> news:42jv90p6gokntgntfn4hs07uv9n0mtdqrt@4ax.com...
> (long article)
>
> Paul was pretty balanced, I think. The direct allegations are the first I've
> heard anything more than generalities. I'm afraid that it doesn't look good
> for David Millar.

Yeah, hiding behind his lawyers isn't going to do much good in the press.

matabala

"Steve McGinty" <steve_DOT_mcginty@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:42jv90p6gokntgntfn4hs07uv9n0mtdqrt@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 10 May 2004 20:19:38 +0200, Ewoud Dronkert <me@privacy.net>
> wrote:
>
> >On Mon, 10 May 2004 18:50:58 +0100, Steve McGinty wrote:
> >>(Long article - don't think you have to subscribe - if you do let me
> >>know and I'll post it)
> >
> >From outside the UK, yes: "The area you wish to access is behind
> >registration."
>
> Okay - pretty extensive use of quotes and italics, so don't know how
> it will read...
>
> "Cycling: Rider in the storm
> PAUL KIMMAGE
> Top British cyclist David Millar wants to move on from his team's
> doping scandal but the questions are not going away
>
> In February, the new cycling season began with five past and present
> riders from the Cofidis team, along with the team masseur, under
> investigation for drug trafficking. The rider Philippe Gaumont was one
> of those who gave evidence. Last month, huge extracts of the cyclist's
> testimony to the investigating magistrate, Richard Pallain, were
> leaked to L'Equipe.
> In it, Britain's David Millar - the Cofidis team leader, world
> time-trial champion and Tour de France stage winner - was implicated
> in a doping scandal.
>
> It is Tuesday, May 4, and I am sitting in a bedroom of a hotel in
> Calais, staring at my mobile phone. I have just sent a note to Millar
> and am anxiously awaiting his call ...
>
> "David, in a recent interview with Procycling (magazine) you mentioned
> your frustration at the lack of coverage you've been getting in the
> mass media.The stage is yours. I've a lot of interesting questions for
> you.
>
> "Regards..."
>
> The afternoon stretches into evening. I call his room, but there is no
> reply. Two days later, a fax arrives from the office of his London
> solicitors.
>
> "Dear Sir, "We act for David Millar. It has come to our client's
> attention that your newspaper may be about to publish an article about
> our client and the Cofidis cycling team. You will be aware that
> several ex-members of the Cofidis team are being investigated by the
> French judicial authority in connection with the use of banned
> substances. Our client is not under investigation and has gone on
> record to say that he has never used banned substances. Furthermore,
> we understand that the Cofidis team have dismissed any person whom
> they had any suspicion of being involved with banned substances and
> accordingly, no current members of the team are being investigated or
> are under suspicion. If you publish any suggestion that our client has
> taken banned substances we will bring legal proceedings for libel
> against you.
>
> "Yours faithfully ..."
>
> WEDNESDAY, MAY 5 (Part 1): It's 11.30 on a cold, grey morning in
> Dunkirk, and I am standing outside the Hotel de Ville as the deluxe
> camping car carrying Millar and his seven Cofidis teammates arrives
> for the opening stage of the Quatre Jours de Dunkirk. Two TV crews and
> a handful of journalists have gathered in the square to monitor their
> arrival. Since January, the team has been rocked by doping
> allegations, and Dunkirk marks its return to competition after a month
> of self-imposed suspension.
>
> Millar is first off the bus. He signs a couple of autographs and
> follows his teammates to the podium, where they are introduced to the
> crowd. In 1986, in what seems a different life, I stood where he
> stands now. I earned my living as a professional bike rider, the
> toughest job in sport. Millar has just finished a short TV interview
> when I introduce myself. I tell him I work for this newspaper.
>
> It's starting to rain; an icy wind is blowing through the square. He
> accepts my hand, but does not seem pleased to meet me. "What are the
> chances of sitting down with you at some stage this week?" I ask.
>
> He thinks about it: "Emm, pretty slim, to be honest."
>
> "Is that a slim 'yes' or a slim 'no'?" "It depends what you want to
> talk about; cycling or doping."
>
> "I want to talk about your career and the allegations that have been
> made about you."
>
> "You want to talk about my career! I've been a pro for eight years and
> you've never spoken to me once. I just find it strange that you come
> suddenly out of the woodwork."
>
> "Well, (my colleague) David Walsh has covered the last few Tours (de
> France). I've been doing other things."
>
> "Well, tell them to send David Walsh then. I'll talk to him. I respect
> his work. And I've no problem talking to Jeremy Whittle (The Times) or
> William Fotheringham (The Guardian). But you - you've a bit of a
> reputation."
>
> I tell him that serious allegations have been made and I'd like to
> hear his side of the story.
>
> "That's all bullshit," he says.
>
> "Really? And what about the interview your boss gave a couple of
> months ago? It wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement. Did he tell you I
> was asking about you at his press conference yesterday?" "And what's
> he saying now?" "He says you're a great champion."
>
> "Yeah, well you'd better take him at his word."
>
> He grabs his bike and begins moving away from the podium. It seems a
> good time to compromise. "Okay, maybe this is a bad time. I don't have
> to write anything this week. Why don't we sit down next week and go
> through it from A to Z, when things have calmed down?" "No, I'm not
> talking to you," he says, pedalling towards the bus, "you can write
> whatever you want."
>
> Oh dear, what have I done to upset him?
>
> WHEN it comes to the art of racing a bike, Millar has always been a
> class act. It was class that set him apart during his earliest days at
> High Wycombe and class that brought him to the Cofidis team at the
> tender age of 20, in 1997.
>
> He could not have entered professional cycling at a worse time. The
> abuse of performance-enhancing drugs was rampant, its drug culture so
> ingrained that the doping continued after the Festina scandal in July
> 1998, when its rotten core was finally exposed. The following year,
> Millar's third as a professional, the Cofidis president, François
> Migraine, was worried about some of the rumours he was hearing, and
> commissioned a French doctor, Jean-Christophe Seznec, to conduct a
> psychiatric analysis of his team. The results, published later that
> year in a French medical journal (Cofidis were not identified), were
> frightening.
>
> A number of the team's riders, Seznec concluded, were showing
> addictive tendencies towards a sleep-inducing pill called Stilnox,
> which was consumed in high doses at parties, or in hotel rooms between
> stages. Performance-enhancing? No, they were abusing the drug for
> kicks. There were other trends; relations with prostitutes; use of
> Viagra; an initiation rite for new riders that included planting drugs
> in food.
>
> And yet, despite the mayhem going on around him, Millar emerged
> unscathed. How do we know this? Because the word on the grapevine was
> that Millar raced and lived "a l'eau". He was clean. "It is why I have
> become such a big commodity in the sport," he told Walsh in February
> 2000. "Teams are looking for guys who can do it naturally. People
> within cycling know who is clean and they can tell from my results
> that I am." Three years later, nothing much has changed. Millar is
> clean - we can tell from his results - but there have been some
> strange noises of late, coming from the so-called "people within who
> know".
>
> Last January, two weeks after the start of what has become the
> "Cofidis affair", Frederique Galametz, a journalist with L'Equipe, was
> granted an interview with Migraine in Paris. The 60-year old Frenchman
> has never been shy in front of a microphone, and the more the
> interview progressed, the more Galametz found herself glancing at her
> recorder, praying its wheels were turning. The team president's
> candour was astonishing.
>
> "I wouldn't cut my hand off for any of my riders," he announced, when
> the conversation turned to doping and those he believed were clean,
> "except, perhaps, for one, and you know who that is".
>
> "David Moncoutie?" "Yes, everyone is pretty much unanimous in saying
> that he takes nothing."
>
> Later in the interview, the spotlight turned to Millar, the team
> leader. "Managing a David Millar," Migraine said, "is no mean feat. I
> dream of finding a leader tomorrow like (the former French champion)
> Charly Mottet who possessed the four elements that make a good rider
> but never touched the fifth. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen any
> more."
>
> "How do you mean?" "Mottet had the talent, the mentality, the healthy
> lifestyle and the dedication. The fifth element for me is doping.
> David has the talent, especially in the time trials, a good mentality
> ... and a sometimes healthy lifestyle, like his dedication ... As far
> as doping is concerned, for David (he shrugs his shoulders), I know
> nothing . . . As I've already said, I wouldn't be sure about anyone."
>
> "But you've spoken to him?" Galametz asked.
>
> "What's the point? If I ask him and he says, 'Yes, I dope', what am I
> supposed to do? I can't fire him before the end of his contract but I
> know and I have to live with that. I'm in a shit that's unmanageable,
> I've no solution."
>
> "So you prefer not to know?" "It's better that I don't know."
>
> The portrait that Gaumont, one of those dismissed by Cofidis, paints
> of the aftermath of Millar's Tour de France stage win in Nantes last
> year is controversial and extremely damaging to Millar. "Millar won
> the last time-trial and we celebrated that evening with champagne," he
> says. "Millar trusts me, and he ordered (Jean-Jacques) Menuet (the
> team doctor) to give (Cedric) Vasseur and me the rest of the
> preparation he had used that morning with (Massimiliano) Lelli before
> the time trial. The next morning, just before we left the hotel,
> Vasseur and I went to Menuet's room at Millar's request . . . It was a
> Sunday, the Champs-Elysees stage . . . Menuet injected each of us with
> a syringe containing a clear liquid, but wouldn't say what it was. I
> think it was cortisone or growth hormone. He then cut the syringes
> with a pliers to dispose of them. 'Tonight,' he said, 'we're going to
> see some Cofidis on the telly'."
>
> Vasseur was also pointing fingers when summoned before the magistrate.
> In his testimony, he alleged that Gaumont had come to his room one
> evening during the last training camp in Spain and told him he had
> just seen Millar "doing a line" of cocaine. "It wasn't actually
> cocaine," Vasseur told the judge, "but Stilnox and ephedrine." The
> allegation appears again in Gaumont's statement. He also claimed that
> Millar had been working with a Spanish doctor with "a bad reputation".
>
> Menuet and Alain Bondue, the Cofidis general manager, have since lost
> their jobs.
>
> On Wednesday, during our brief conversation, Millar dismissed the
> allegations as "bullshit, but declined to say more.
>
>
> WEDNESDAY, MAY 5 (Part 2): Do you believe in divine intervention? I'm
> sitting in a car, driving through the village of Warhem, ahead of the
> race, when the weirdest thing happens. I have just passed a banner by
> the side of the road that reads "It's Millar Time. Go David!" when
> David's sister, Fran, calls my mobile phone. She sounds charming and
> seems very concerned that David and I haven't hit it off.
>
> "There's no problem here," I assure her, "I would much rather sit down
> in comfort with David than write anything this week."
>
> "Why don't you fax your questions to his hotel and we'll take it from
> there?" she says.
>
> "No, no," I demur, "he's a big boy now. Let's set up the interview
> first."
>
> I agree to send her an e-mail outlining what the interview will
> entail. For the next hour, we engage in frantic text.
>
> (Message from Fran) "Hi Paul, my email is ------. Please include terms
> and agenda for potential interview. Thanks, Fran." (Message to Fran)
> "Fran, my terms are truth and honesty. No agenda, just the A to Z of
> his career. Monday is good for me - anytime, anywhere." (Message from
> Fran) "Hopefully that goes without saying - but I will need you to be
> more specific than that I'm afraid! Would also like confirmation that
> if this is agreed to, it will replace the piece on Sunday. Call me if
> you want to discuss."
>
> I call Fran. "I'm not a magician," I say. "There's not going to be any
> rabbits coming out of hats. All I want to do is sit him down and
> discuss the current allegations and his career. You are more than
> welcome to join us. He can even bring his lawyer."
>
> She insists on a written guarantee that nothing will appear on Sunday
> if the interview is agreed for next week. No problem, I say. We're
> almost home. Fran does not see any reason we can't meet on Monday, and
> she promises she will speak to David as soon as the stage has
> finished. When she calls again, I'm standing on the press podium
> opposite the finishing line and can hardly hear a word with the noise.
> She says something about the nature of the investigation and there
> being a problem: "David's French lawyers are insisting they see the
> questions in advance."
>
> I tell her this is not something I can do. An hour later we reach the
> endgame. The stage has finished. She's spoken to David. He hasn't
> changed his mind.
>
> (Message from Fran) "Sorry we couldn't arrange it this time, maybe
> some other time? At the moment David is just keen to get on with
> riding his bike. Regards, Fran." (Message to Fran) "No problem, I
> understand, the law of silence is golden."
>
> The next afternoon, the solicitor's fax arrives. I am left with
> questions. If Millar's solicitors are correct, and Cofidis have rid

David Cowie

Kimmage is exactly the poacher turned game-ranger you would want to
sit down with and convince you are clean.

Understandably the interviewee could only answer for themselves, but
team politics (want to ride the TdF ?) and the continental judicial
system might play a larger role in terms of who is on the "ok" list of
press.

"More soup sir ?"

Richard Adams

David Cowie wrote:

> Kimmage is exactly the poacher turned game-ranger you would want to
> sit down with and convince you are clean.
>
> Understandably the interviewee could only answer for themselves, but
> team politics (want to ride the TdF ?) and the continental judicial
> system might play a larger role in terms of who is on the "ok" list of
> press.
>
> "More soup sir ?"
>

If you're telling the truth, there's less to remember. Millar should
have had little to fear of having an interview, with or without his own
team present, but keep a full recorded copy for himself if Kimmage
decided to turn phrases.

TM

"Richard Adams" <ackthpt@concentric.net> wrote in message
news:c7ql78$qdp@dispatch.concentric.net...

> but keep a full recorded copy for himself if Kimmage
> decided to turn phrases.
>

That sounds like fun.

What does he have to gain from talking with someone who clearly has an ax to
grind? Nothing. I am no fan of David Millar, but this falls into the why
you shouldn't wrestle with a pig bit of folk wisdom - you both end up muddy
and the pig likes it.

Chris

"Richard Adams" <ackthpt@concentric.net> wrote in message
news:c7ql78$qdp@dispatch.concentric.net...
> David Cowie wrote:
>
> > Kimmage is exactly the poacher turned game-ranger you would want to
> > sit down with and convince you are clean.
> >
> > Understandably the interviewee could only answer for themselves, but
> > team politics (want to ride the TdF ?) and the continental judicial
> > system might play a larger role in terms of who is on the "ok" list of
> > press.
> >
> > "More soup sir ?"
> >
>
> If you're telling the truth, there's less to remember. Millar should
> have had little to fear of having an interview, with or without his own
> team present, but keep a full recorded copy for himself if Kimmage
> decided to turn phrases.


I am not saying whether he is clean or not, but there are a host of reasons
to not cooperate even if he is clean. He may know more than he is willing to
talk about and in fact he may know something that he is now required to not
disclose. There have been people terminated from the team and they may have
negotiated a departure that includes non-disclosure. That is not as unusual
as you might be assuming.

Having a copy of the interview would help close the barn door after the cow
got out, but he has a lot more to consider than you do. Silence does not
equate to guilt. Clearly the quilty have the strongest motivation to keep
quiet but to imply they are the only ones that due is just silly. Also note
that he agreed to talk with Walsh, who is one of the more outspoken
reporters WRT the doping issue.

Chris

"matabala" <matabala@wanadoo.fr> wrote in message
news:c7pvej$5hq$1@news-reader3.wanadoo.fr...
>
> "Steve McGinty" <steve_DOT_mcginty@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
>
>
> Can't fault Millar for not wanting to talk to the guy.

That is right.

>Kimmage sure sounds
> like he's got his mind made up. Not exactly the starting point for any
> investigative journalist.

LOL, that is an understatement. Look at his book. I am happy he wrote it,
but to present himself as an unbiased reporter after that is laughable. It
is not as if he has a whole body of work with that book as only one POV in
one situation. The worst part about his view is that he draws so many
conclusions without proof. He chose the role of muckraker, not one as an
unbiased reporter. I remember reading several years ago that he had decided
he would not cover cycling because he was so upset about his "findings" on
doping. It could be that he softened his position over time but as far as I
know, he only chose to cover cycling (fairly recently, and definitely post
Festina Tour) in order to expose doping. The guy is clearly the most biased
person in the subject. Disagree with me if you wish, but then please provide
me with a name of someone that is more extreme in their bias.