Millar claims his father 'struck him' over doping confession

DAVID Millar has claimed his own father hit him when he found out the Scottish cyclist had turned to doping to further his career.

Millar was banned for two years by British Cycling after admitting the use of the banned drug EPO following the discovery of used syringes in his house by French police investigating doping in cycling in June 2004.

The Scot has since returned to the cycling circuit and is competing on the Tour de France as team leader for Garmin-Chipotle, who are attempting to clean up the sport's image by employing only riders ardently against the use of drugs.

In an interview with a Sunday newspaper, Millar confessed his life was spiralling into a deep depression soon after first using a five-day course of EPO in Tuscany in 2001. He soon told his mother Avril about the doping, and later also confessed to his father Gordon, who had divorced from Millar's mother when David was 11. Gordon took it badly and hit his son, according to Millar's recollections of a conversation that happened when he was drunk.

"My dad had become my biggest fan, hugely proud of me," said Millar in the interview. "It started to piss me off that he put me on this pedestal, so I abused it and pushed it beyond reason to the point he became aware something wasn't right. We got into a heated argument about my having changed so much, and when he was at his wits' end, I told him coldly that I wasn't what he thought I was, that I had doped.

"He hit me. I didn't care, I wanted to hurt him. That's what I mean by cruel. I regret hurting him like that. He didn't deserve it."

Millar also said that his life had got even worse after being sacked by his Cofidis team following his ban and landing an £800,000 French tax bill. "I was literally terrified," he said. "It took about seven or eight months of me just running away from it all. I was drunk almost all the time.

"Thank God they did (find the syringes]. They (the syringes] are the reason I am here today otherwise I don't know. I knew the path I was going down was self-destructive and even if the police had found nothing, my name would have been mud.

"It would be a miracle if I was still employed by a cycling team. I suppose I would have kept drinking and followed that cliched path of the f*****-up cyclist that we have seen in the past decade."