David Millar working with Checchini

Paul Kimmage is a has been loser that blames drugs for his failure as a pro cyclist (if I didn't have a career as a succesful journalist I would feel different he says).

He lost not using them and lost using them - so much for drugs can make you win. A donkey is a donkey and no amount of dope will make you a race horse Paul.

And he knew Landis was guilty BEFORE the results came back??

Paul Kimmage should thank pro cyclists for doping - playing the hard done by squealer has helped his career tremendously...

meandmybike said:

Agreed. And why doesn't someone ask Dave Brailsford and Simon Jones at British Cycling how they can allow this lying, cheating piece of sh1t to ride in a GB jersey when is working with Cecchini.

Thankfully Millar is too stupid and too arrogant to get away with it (this is the guy who kept the empty EPO vials at home yet still denied drug use). I give ot 18 months at the most before he's caught. Hopefully it will be a lot sooner but he is working with the best now... 😠 😠 😠

Personally i hope he succeeds, i'm not a great fan of his but fair play to him. I don't believe he is daft enough to cheat he has no pressure to win major tours just time trials and occasional stages. Generally its the GC riders that feel the pressure to perform day in day out that cheat. No one knows what advice or how much from cecchini. He probably gets more advice now from british cycling.

meandmybike said:

...this is the guy who kept the empty EPO vials at home yet still denied drug use...

He said he kept those to remind him of the bad thing he did, which is BS. He kept those to remind him of what to order next time he wanted to win.

weremichael said:

It also conveniently makes sure that Basso's season is truly over, leaves him with 138 ProTour Points. Not too shabby for a man that road a 1/2 season and is going to most likely walk from the Puerto debacle.

Michael

😕 Sorry, don't understand. Are you inferring that this helping/protecting Basso? He has Protour points because he won the CI and the Giro this year... (doped or not, LOL).

I do not know enough (apparently you have had the chance to read the documentation related to Puerto) whether there is a smoking gun that will nail Basso or not. But please do explain on what you base your statement that Basso will walk.

"he’s working with a man who’s has been INVESTIGATED by magistrates over doping allegations."

The key word here I feel. He's not been found guilty of anything. Seems Millar is guilty by association and the the association hasn't even been found guilty yet.

I forgot to reply to this thread. Lemme see... ahem...

Oh my GAWD!!! I can't believe it! Millar is working with Checchini?!?!? Surely NO! I thought he was clean for life after what he went through! Oh the horror!*

*please note comments in italics are dripping with sarcasm

DeanMoriarty said:

"he’s working with a man who’s has been INVESTIGATED by magistrates over doping allegations."

The key word here I feel. He's not been found guilty of anything. Seems Millar is guilty by association and the the association hasn't even been found guilty yet.

You're right. We're all jumping the gun so let's just simmer down. I mean, I know when I need a doctor, often times I consider using one who lives in another country. Nothing strange about that.

IF Millar is working with Checchini then this is very very bad news indeed because I really like his, "I can win clean" schtick. Whether it's Millar or not, some rider has to get caught then come clean and come back proud to be clean.... win or lose.

So, who has sources on this? I only actually saw one reference to it, an accusation by that british journalist who used to be a cyclist in the 80s. In that story, which I reread yesterday, it was an offhanded remark almost tangential to the story. Do we KNOW Millar has admitted to working with Checchini or have a second source to confirm? Sorry for being desperate, just looking for one clean cyclist to cheer for. Anybody know one? I would cheer for myself but the amount of coffee I drink here in Portland would surely fail any drug test I was given. The stuff is amazing. 3-4 cups of strong locally roasted brew and I can ride for 3 hours before my first caffeine loaded GU or Clif Shot. Yup, I am a doper just looking for a clean role model.

barnstorm said:

IF Millar is working with Checchini then this is very very bad news indeed because I really like his, "I can win clean" schtick. Whether it's Millar or not, some rider has to get caught then come clean and come back proud to be clean.... win or lose.

So, who has sources on this?

Millar admitted to it in an interview in one of the UK broad sheets - the Observer IIRC. Google it.

meandmybike said:

Millar admitted to it in an interview in one of the UK broad sheets - the Observer IIRC. Google it.

I just sent an e-mail to VeloNews asking them if this was true. I've read it in enough places to know that it must be, but I'd like Velonews to acknowledge it or address it or something.

helmutRoole2 said:

I just sent an e-mail to VeloNews asking them if this was true. I've read it in enough places to know that it must be, but I'd like Velonews to acknowledge it or address it or something.

I just fired off an e-mail to the cyclingnews.com editorial team covering the Vuelta asking them if Miller was working with Checchini.

If you, the reader of this, have the time, you should do the same. If enough journalist know they're thought of as being limp [censored] on this issue, the might grow a pair and start asking the question.

Here's their e-mail addy: [email hidden]

From The Times:

The Times September 21, 2006

Cycling: Millar seeks reward for cleaning up act
From Jeremy Whittle, in Salzburg

DAVID MILLAR’S career turns full circle this afternoon, when the 29-year-old seeks to banish the demons of his chequered past with victory in the elite men’s time-trial. Millar’s ambition to win back the world title of which he was stripped in 2004 after confessing to doping is fierce.
But even as he made his final preparations for this afternoon’s 50.83km race against the clock, sources within Team GB revealed that his comeback as a national squad member almost ended before it began when senior team management bluntly instructed the Scot to end a burgeoning relationship with Luigi Cecchini, the Italian sports doctor, this year.

Cecchini’s name remains controversial within cycling because of his association with Tyler Hamilton, the first cyclist to serve a ban for illegal blood transfusions, and Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich, both of whom are being investigated in the Operation Puerto doping scandal. Millar’s manager is Max Sciandri, the former professional and a protégé and friend of Cecchini, who is based in Tuscany.

Before the end of his two-year ban for using EPO, Millar had been training in Tuscany under Sciandri’s supervision when Cecchini and the Scot made contact. “David had some training sessions with Cecchini in May and June in Lucca,” Sciandri said. “It’s a delicate issue. But David is a pro and I can’t tell him what to do. Everybody sets their own limits. I am a friend of Cecchini, but right now there is no relationship between David and Cecchini.”

Millar’s dalliance with Cecchini was given short shrift. “If he had a relationship with Cecchini, we would say, ‘Thank you and goodbye,’ ” David Brailsford, the Team GB manager, said. “I told him he shouldn’t have done it and that Team GB don’t want to have any association with Cecchini. David knows that in this climate he has to be very careful as to who he associates with.”

Brailsford insisted that Millar has learnt the error of his ways. “I have complete confidence in him or else he wouldn’t be here,” he said.

Nicole Cooke, of Team GB, finished fifth in the elite women’s time-trial yesterday, but her eyes are fixed on Saturday’s elite women’s road race. The Welshwoman has two days to gather her strength for the 132.6km event, in which she will be the strong favourite.

Well tonight in Manchester David Miller won the British 4000m on the track ! Well done boy... !

whiteboytrash said:

Well tonight in Manchester David Miller won the British 4000m on the track ! Well done boy... !

And a superb performance he did too, by all accounts tonight.

BUT.

Bradley Wiggins in this months Cycle Sport magazine says that he (BW) admires
Millar for admitting his offence and for now riding clean.

I have to say that even if Millar is riding clean, his very association with Checchini sends the wrong signals entirely.
Given Checchinis history.

limerickman said:

I have to say that even if Millar is riding clean, his very association with Checchini sends the wrong signals entirely.
Given Checchinis history.

Millar has never worried what signals he's sending out. His arrogance is legendary. This is the man who ranted on about drug cheats during a private dinner with the editor of Cycling Weekly, saying they were ruining the sport and should all receive life bans. He then takes umbridge when the same editor writes about let down he felt by Millar's drug use. Millar now refuses to talk to Cycling Weekly.

You guys are unbelievable. Turn a blind eye when "your doper" wins and give him a pat on the back. And cry like babies and scream guilty when the other dopers (one doper in particular) wins. I'm sorry, but the bias is incredible.

limerickman said:

And a superb performance he did too, by all accounts tonight.

BUT.

Bradley Wiggins in this months Cycle Sport magazine says that he (BW) admires
Millar for admitting his offence and for now riding clean.

I have to say that even if Millar is riding clean, his very association with Checchini sends the wrong signals entirely.
Given Checchinis history.

The only signals Millar is sending are Western Union money orders to Checcini for EPO. This seriously seems scripted, a page out of Armstrong's book. He takes the negative and turns it into a positive. Wait, he tested positive... no. Hold on. He takes an admission and turns it into a positive that some day may well turn into a positive drug test.

Dopers are addicts. They don't like to train with out the dope. And, they'll do whatever it takes to get high.

meehs said:

You guys are unbelievable. Turn a blind eye when "your doper" wins and give him a pat on the back. And cry like babies and scream guilty when the other dopers (one doper in particular) wins. I'm sorry, but the bias is incredible.

I don't think anyone here has actually stated that they support Millar, Meehs.

helmutRoole2 said:

You're right. We're all jumping the gun so let's just simmer down. I mean, I know when I need a doctor, often times I consider using one who lives in another country. Nothing strange about that.

are you a world class pro cyclist? differant situation.

limerickman said:

I don't think anyone here has actually stated that they support Millar, Meehs.

My point wasn't that anyone was "supporting" him. What amazes me is that Millar gets an "well done boy..." from WBT and you remarked on his "superbe performance". The guy is a known doper. If it had been Landis or Armstrong winning the British 4000, he would have elicited no such comments from either of you. You both would've commented on what a dispicable, doping liar they are and that would've been the end of it.

Anytime anyone who has bashed Armstrong, Hamilton, Landis, etc... as a doper and then turns around and applauds another rider who's a known doper, I can't resist the urge to point out the bias. I don't understand how one can condemn a doper when it's someone they don't like and then choose to ignore it when it's someone they do like.

Me? I just understand that most or all of the riders dope and I don't bash on any of them for it. When the sport is clean and it's proven that a single rider is the lone doper, then I'll squawk. In other words you're not going to hear me condemn a rider because they got caught doping. Because that'll never happen (the lone doper thing that is).