David Millar

“Now there are two or three teams who are very ethical in their outlook who have opened up the economic benefits and that is probably going to be a turning point in the sport.”

“The past is as important as the future, but we only live in the here and now.”

“To be brutally honest, it's simple economics. If they want to come into cycling, sponsors need to know the team they are funding is clean, otherwise the risk is just too great.”

“It seemed romantic but also tragic - people would be winning but then lose it all, or crash but fight on, break bones but get back on their bikes and try to finish. Just getting to the end was seen as an achievement in itself.”

“I shave my legs twice a week. It's hard the first time you do it. But I'm very lazy. For a team photo in December I just did the fronts.”

“Cycling is based so much on form, on aesthetics, on class - the way you carry yourself on the bike, the sort of technique you have.”

“I've been proud to be national champion. I've really enjoyed it. I have very little opportunity to remind people that I'm British and it's a nice way of staying in touch. I'm going to defend it fiercely. I want to keep it.”

“I like my hands. Which is lucky as I have to spend all day looking at them on the handlebars.”

“There will always be cheaters. It is human nature. It will never be 100 percent clean, in any sport.”

“This place has been my home. They liked me here. Not any more. Now they will look the other way. Now I don't belong.”

“But human nature dictates that there will always be cheaters. That's inevitable. Where there's money involved and glory, there are going to be people that cheat, and there will always be ways to cheat.”

“I think cycling has always had a tradition of being a bit dapper, especially back in the day.”

“The smallest issues can become the most important things in life and reality slips away.”

“I'm an accumulation of every single thing I've done, good and bad.”

“My epiphany came in that police cell: I realised I was about to lose everything and it didn't bother me, not in the slightest. I'd come to hate cycling because I blamed it for the lie I was living.”

“Everything that's going on within the peloton - there's about ten different races going on. There is also a survival element to it - I love the fact that it's so epic. You crash on a bike, the first thing you do is try and get back up on it. No whinging!”

“I think if I get the training spot on, the equipment perfect and I'm in the right state of mind, I can get a result there from no competitive action.”

“I sat there with everything - and I had nothing.”

“It was very quiet at the hotel, as if there had been a death in the family. When you have quit the Tour, nobody really knows what to say or do. (...) Everything I'd previously achieved meant nothing; all I was now was a pro rider who couldn't finish the Tour de France.”

“In Italy it's full-on stardom when you're a cyclist - eating in restaurants for free, it's great.”