By Daniel Benson David Millar has had surgery on the broken collarbone he sustained during the final...
David Millar wasn't time trialing when he was brought down in the final stage of Paris-Nice (Image credit: AFP)
By Daniel Benson
David Millar has had surgery on the broken collarbone he sustained during the final stage of Paris-Nice. The operation, in Sheffield yesterday, means he'll be out for a minimum of four weeks. The Garmin rider was brought down in a crash caused by Silence-Lotto rider Jurgen Van den Broeck.
Speaking to Cyclingnews directly from his hospital bed in Sheffield, Millar explained why he'd delayed the operation: "I spent quite a lot of time researching the injury and had ten different consultations before finally settling on this one. I wanted it done properly. I was operated on by David Potter, who is a world-leading specialist in this field. He's operated on a number of cyclists, including Ben Swift."
In a career that has spanned more than a decade, this was Millar's first collarbone break and he explained that the injury wasn't clean, with the bone breaking into several pieces. "It broke into three pieces and was torn off the ligament. It was one of the worst injuries my surgeon has seen."
No plates or screws were involved in the surgery. Instead Potter carried out a 'tight-rope' procedure that involved an artificial suspension between bone and ligament.
Millar crashed during the final stage of the race, just as Alberto Contador (Astana) attacked at the foot of the col de la Porte. "It was a stupid crash. Christian [Vande Velde] and I were positioning ourselves near the front of the field and Van den Broeck panicked and came screaming up the left side. As he did his skewer jammed into my wheel and catapulted me through the air. Due to irresponsible riding and a lack of respect he's taken me out. It's fair to say that he's not my favourite rider at the moment."
Millar will now return to his home in Girona in the next few days before evaluating his goals for the season. "Because I need total rest for four weeks as my shoulder heals, the Critérium International is out of the window, but if I have the perfect, textbook recovery for the next two months I should still be in line for the Dauphiné and Tour de France. May and June are all up in the air though."
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Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
