DAVID MILLAR, the former world champion cyclist and Tour de France stage winner who confessed to taking EPO, the prohibited blood-booster, intends to make his comeback in next summer’s Tour, only nine days after his two-year ban ends.

In a sport where scandals shadow results, Millar’s return will be highly controversial. His life was devastated by his arrest in June 2004. He was sacked by his team, Cofidis, banned for two years, thrown out of the Great Britain squad for the Athens Olympics, stripped of his 2003 World Time Trial Championship and forced to sell his home in France as the scandal surrounding him spiralled beyond control.

“It was terrifying the whole bloody time,” he said. “You’re 27 and you think you’ve got everything and then suddenly you have nothing — in fact, less than nothing. I came back to England and started from scratch. I had to reinvent myself. I had no choice because I’d lost everything.”

Millar’s ban, which ends on June 23 next year, was only the beginning of his problems. “Things kept getting worse, with financial issues and a lot of other escalating worries,” he said. “It was very hard. I think we all deal with those situations and get out of them differently. I had my own way of getting through it and getting my head back above water.

“I lost everything and was punished, but that’s what punishment is. You don’t come out of it easily. The circumstances dictated that I ended up paying a very high price for my errors compared to other people.”

Millar blames his downfall on his youthfulness and naivety — he turned professional at 19 — and his Cofidis team management’s inability to protect him. “I was vulnerable. I was a kid living abroad. I wanted to be liked, I wanted to make them happy,” he said. “I wanted to be French and I wanted to fit in. I had misplaced loyalties and I think they took advantage of that. But I have benefited from the experience in the long term.”

Sacked by his team and pursued by the French taxman and media, Millar, who was born in Hong Kong to Scottish parents, left France and moved to Hayfield, in rural Derbyshire, where he already had a network of friends. “I had a long time off the bike, when I just didn’t even touch it,” he said. “Last summer I started riding again, around the Peak District. I loved it and within a month felt like I was flying. It reminded me that actually I am quite good at it.”

Millar has been vilified by many within the parochial British cycling community and the sight of him training on the sharp climbs of the Peak District stunned other cyclists. “I’d stop, say hello, do a photograph or whatever,” he said. “I was just enjoying it so much.

“But even before that I’d already decided to come back to racing. I had it planned out in my head and I’d never imagined having more than a year off the bike. I’ve had to be much more structured about it because I don’t have any other structure in my life.”

After resolving to make his comeback, negotiations with some potential employers faltered when sponsors backed away from his tainted reputation. Millar has now been thrown a lifeline by Saunier Duval, the Spanish team sponsor, and is poised to sign a contract within days.

Ironically for an athlete who never failed a drugs test — he was caught when a search of his flat by the French drugs squad revealed a cache of EPO — Millar is now a staunch advocate of out-of-competition testing. “The International Cycling Union (UCI) has to instigate more out-of-competition and random testing,” he said. “I’ve hardly heard of any of the boys undergoing random testing by the UCI. So where is all this testing? Random controls are the only way to stop it all.

“By all means test the top Tour favourites, with random tests on a regular basis. Cycling needs those kind of testing tactics — I think that all sport does. The UCI need to get a grip on it. Where is the prevention? Why don’t the UCI publish lists of who they random-test each month and the results, so that we know they’re doing it? It’s the UCI’s responsibility and I don’t think they’re fulfilling that responsibility.”

Despite his Peak District training having been the foundation of his rehabilitation, Millar plans to move to Spain, possibly to Girona, Lance Armstrong’s last European base, in the new year. “Good weather, good roads and a reasonable quality of life are what I’m looking for, but I don’t think I’ll be living in a surfing, partying seaside town again,” he said, mindful of the distractions of his former home in Biarritz.

Millar hopes that his new girlfriend, Nicole, will go with him. “We can live a chilled-out existence and I can focus on training and racing,” he said. “But the good thing is that I will come back to the UK a lot more and spend time there.

“I want my comeback to be credible and inspiring, for me and for others and for younger kids. I owe that to cycling and my friends. I want it to be unquestionable and good to watch. Because it is possible to win without doping.”

This is an abridged version of an interview that will appear in the January issue of procycling magazine.

STAGES IN LE DANDY’S CAREER

Born: January 4, 1977, in Malta

1997: Turns professional with Cofidis, aged 19

1997: Wins prologue time-trial and yellow jersey in Tour de l’Avenir. Described by his French team as better than Greg LeMond, the three-time winner of Tour de France. His mother, Avril, places a bet at 100-1 that he will win Tour de France by 2002.

2000: Wins opening time-trial and first yellow jersey of 2000 Tour de France. Lifestyle earns him nickname “Le Dandy” from French media.

2001: Wins Tour of Denmark and two stages in Tour of Spain.

2002: Takes first road-stage victory in Tour de France.

2003: Wins world time-trial championship in Canada and stages in Tour de France and Tour of Spain in his most successful season to date. Touted as gold medal-contender for Great Britain at Athens Olympics.

2004: In January, Philippe Gaumont, a team-mate, is arrested by French drugs squad. Millar is arrested in June and search of his flat unearths syringe containing Eprex, a brand of EPO. Confesses to doping himself, is dismissed by his team, banned for two years and stripped of world title.

2005: Starts training again. Agrees terms with Saunier Duval, the Spanish team.

JEREMY WHITTLE