david millar

How comes people say David Millar is a top cyclist gonna be future TDF champ etc?? i've never understood this! Ok he won the world TT last yr, but where were Jan/Lance/Tyler/mcgee to name a few?? he's never really done anything of major note apart from that. In my opinion he's very overrated and nowhere near the same class as a lot of pros in the peloton!

 

David Millar is a gifted natural cyclist : the problem is he is also a whiney yong man who needs to grow up and realise that being good isn´t enough - you have to work at it as well , and when you don´t win it´s cause you didn´t try / do enough , not that there´s some plot to stop you winning . Train more party / talk / write less , you do it on the bike remember ?
Good thing Cofidis have got Astaloa this year .

 

Yeah he practically whined his way through the TdF. Agree that he definitely needs to grow up.

But remember he didn't just win the World TT; he annihilated the opposition.

 

Yes and look how he won that stage in the Vuelta last year , good cyclist but ..........

 

In all fairness, if my chain fell off in the prologue like that (and that of five teammates too, or so he said), after all the TT hype and pressure I had been/placed myself under, I'd be pretty rattled too.

Anyone know what brand the alleged culprit chainrings were by the way? I've always been curious to know.

 

He choose not to run a chain guide : his fault .

 

True, and I guess being ill for a couple of weeks didn't do his morale much good. But he still had a serious inability to look on the bright side of life, until he won that final TT.

 

I can see how Millar can divide fans - he does seem to be distracted at times which I think he needs to work on.

In fairness to him though, I was impressed with how he stuck to the task in the 2003 TDF and he did manage to salvage the final TT as well.
He was really suffering on some of the mountain stages in the TDF
but he stuck with it.
This shows that he does have the ability to concentrate.

Along with his win in the Vuelta - he shows he's got the ability and the tenacity to hold on.
But, yes I can see how fans might be turned off by him too.

 

I *only* know what he said after the Prologue and that's not how he described the situation at all.

 

Yes and he gave two versions of his " abandon " in the Vuelta : the first that it was a protest about the conditions / route and the other that it was a protest against his teams pay scheme ( this one given some months later ) .
Seems to me that you can´t always trust what he says / writes .

re the chain thing - some ran with the guide / front mech , some didn´t - those that did had no problem , those that didn´t ......

 

I don't doubt this but I'd like to read about it. Do you know where this is written up?

I assume the guide functions similarly to how a front deraileur would in terms of locating the chain, but for the single chainring.

He said there were five team members that had the same problem, but I'm unclear as to whether that means five had the chain leave the ring or that five had the chain leave the ring and that repositioning the chain was complicated by the lack of the retainer, ie: the chain was either down around the crank arm or down around the spindle as opposed to hanging from the retainer.

Millar blaimed the chainring itself for the chain jumping and basically said the mechanics were in the hot seat for the equipment choice because they endorsed it and chose it.

This was all very off the cuff, right after the stage and seemed to be his sincere understanding of the situation. That doesn't make it correct but I'd like to know more.

 

David Millar has a habit of shooting from the lip : in this case a number of the team choose to run without the front mech and a single ring . This has , and always will be , a silly risk for the slight weight gain involved on a flatish and bumpy course . Now there may be a slight (?) gain aerodynamiclly but not enough to compensate for a throwen chain , on Eurosport Sean Kelly thought it a dumb choice and I don´t think you´ll find many to disagree .

David Millar has a habit of blaming other people for his failiers ( ¿ remember how in 2002 he blamed not doing well on lack of training on the zandvort circuit ? , well nobody else seems to have ridden it either ; though everybody who wanted could walk around it ) ........... until he accepts that his destiny is in his own hands and learns to accept his part of the blame he will remain one of those riders of whom history says " if only " .
Mind you I think that anybody of his ability , and he has a lot , who enters the le Tour just to try and win the prologue ( then sulks if they don´t ) may have the wrong attitude .
Also he´d fall off rather less often if he didn´t spend so much of his time in the pelaton getting a " free ride " at the back with the climbers and moved nearer the front ( like most of the guys trying to win , it´s safer - if a bit harder )
A young lad with so much potential but ....................

 

I checked out that portion of the Tour DVD last night and he said the team was using a non-Campy chainring and that the chain jumped off of 5 of them. Yes, he would have gotten the chain on faster if he'd had a front deraileur and yes he would have won the prologue if he's have lost just nine fewer 100ths of a second. So yes, not running a fron deraileur was a mistake. That doesn't mean that 5 teammates having the chain jump off a particular brand of chainring suggests anything other than a problem with those chainrings and in a 6 minute prologue the issue should not be how quickly you can get your chain back on. Yes, he contributed to his loss but it's not the only issue.

Anyone know what chainrings these were and whether the other afflicted teammates all had their front deraileurs removed?

 

don´t know the make but the ones who had problems ran without the front mech .

 

All of them? That would be interesting because the lack of a front changer would explain difficulty replacing the chain, not the chain coming off in the first place.

Does anyone's chain routinely try to jump the chainring only to be held in check by the deraileur? Not mine.

 

Remove the small ring , take off the front mech and try riding on the last three big cogs , on a bumpy road and backpedal going into a corner : it´ll happen every time .

 

Well yeah...I suppose...

But I just got a bad sprain from rolling my eyes *hard* at thought of any of these guys, least of all a TT specialist like Millar being anywhere *near* the three biggest cogs during a short prologue on the billiard-table-flat streets of Paris.

You make it sound like he was climbing the Koppenberg.

 

maybe I should have said the 18 , 19 + 21 with a 54 or is it 55, 56 etc - and they do have tight corners on Paris streets and prologues . On a single ring and a non perfect chain line you can have lots of problems .

 

Just to clarify a couple of things in this post. Miller was at the Zolder circuit in Belgium If my geography is right Zandvort is in the Netherlands, because I went to a Grand Prix there. Second thing, I saw the British squad riding round the Zolder circuit on the Saturday, so he was 'training'.

It was very interesting at the signing on on Sunday, they pulled cyclists to speak to the crowd. There was a large Cipo fan element, and the speaker was a bit miffed when Mario wouldn't speak to him, so he grabbed DM and announced that he was the next pin-up for the 'tifosi' to take to their heart. and DM said he wouldn't mind.

The Paris Prologue route alright its nearly flat, but I wouldn't want to cycle the first 1.5k, to the Place de Trocadero on a good day. I know walking it isn't a picnic.