David Millar

“What an idiot I'd been. What a spoilt brat. What a bloody fool.”

“The sky was falling down on me and I spent most of the time drunk. It was the only way I could handle it.”

“I'd just killed some of the best riders in the world - and I was clean. I'd taken nothing - no EPO, no cortisone, no testosterone, no painkillers, no caffeine. I had justified to myself that I was a great rider without drugs - yet perversely given myself the green light to dope again. I'd proved what I could do clean - how much more could I do if I was doped?”

“In fact cycling has always been 'saved' by judicial investigations and not by the anti-doping controls we put in place. That's the harsh truth. We have relied on them to clean the sport up.”

“Often the best guys are just those that can suffer longer, who don't give up. And it's so easy to give up, when you're on a mountain and it's really hurting. We go through a lot physically.”

“Survival is the main objective. There are going to be some awful days, I know that from my background in the sport.”

“The first time I rode a bike I was four or five. I crashed into the back of a car.”

“Why should sports men and women get punished harsher than people in the normal world?”

“People do make mistakes and I think they should be punished. But they should be forgiven and given the opportunity for a second chance. We are human beings.”