Millar will get to Paris

By Brecht Decaluwé in Saint-Quentin

David Millar is back in the peloton, quite a special peloton actually: The Scotsman has returned to the Tour de France competing at the highest level. Millar, born in Malta, was suspended for two years but kept training and recently found a ProTour team that adopted him - Spanish Saunier Duval. Before his suspension, the 29 year-old was known to be very strong against the clock; a quality you don’t lose, even being out of competition for so long. Cyclingnews' Belgian diarist, Wilfried Cretskens, predicted a win for David Millar in the prologue. The actual result proved to be a 17th placing, fourteen seconds down on winner Thor Hushovd...

"No, but I knew that I wasn’t going fast enough," Millar said. "So realistically, I know I have to be happy with that result, but I know I can do better. My training was focused on time trialling, not on doing a prologue." The first time trial in the Tour de France this year will be on Saturday, July 8 - that should suit the tall Saunier Duval man even more.

"Saturday, I hope to do really well in the long individual time trial, but maybe I might do really crap," Millar cautioned. But he is still sure of his overall objective: "I’m pretty sure I can get to Paris! I don’t know if I’ll be 'lanterne rouge' or not, but I will get to Paris!"