David Millar's TdF Diaries – Week 3

Now the dust has well and truly settled on the 2025 Tour de France, it might be a good time to revisit David Millar’s Tour diary entries. For the participants and fans alike, these three weeks in France are simultaneously the longest and shortest three weeks of the whole year. We all wait impatiently 49 weeks for it to start, then while in the middle of it, it seems to be eternal, and before we know it, the circus is over and everyone has retreated back to their altitude tents and beach holidays. We feel lost, disconsolate even. 

 Thank goodness we have still a huge portion of the season to anticipate. The Vuelta is already close on the horizon and a history-making World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda. Till then, you can relive the Tour de France through the brilliance of David Millar’s snapshot musings.

Monday, 21.07.2025

2nd Rest Day: MONTPELLIER

David’s take: Arriving into Avignon by train meant I had to walk across town to get to our hotel, so I decided to take a circuitous route. I saw the oldest hotel in France, the Hotel d’Europe, open since 1799, which to be honest doesn’t seem that old to me but maybe the French were late adopters. Opposite it was Le Dandy Bar, which was amusing, as when I won my first stage and took yellow at the Tour back in 2000, L’Equipe called me Le Dandy. Damn L’Equipe. Then I weaved and wandered across to the Palais des Papes. Avignon had been where the Papal Curia was moved to escape the chaos in Rome in the 14th Century. The building is immense, and to be frank, terrifying. Which I guess was the point. Then I just wandered around, it’s a wonderful city, the whole place seems to be pedestrianised, and it was rammed, with artists and performers everywhere, which made more sense when I discovered there’s a theatre festival currently happening. That’s been my day, no Tour de France action I’m afraid. Which is good for me, as I needed a break. Tomorrow, Ventoux. I’m going to ride it.

Tuesday, 22.07.2025

Stage 16: MONTPELLIER > MONT VENTOUX 171.5 km

David’s take: I rode Ventoux this morning. It's as hard as I remember, highly unpleasant, in fact. Fortunately for me, once again, there was an end-of-days mass migration of cycling fans happening from Bedoin, where the 21km climb officially begins. This meant the first kilometres were very slow, which suited me just fine. It also meant I felt like a “WorldTour pro” as I darted in-between and around fans loaded up with their day's supplies. This was okay until it became utterly gridlocked to a standstill where we do the switchback onto the climb proper. At which point I went cross-country to cut the corner and rejoin further up, optimistically climbing through the forest like Bear Grylls, full #spiritofgravel. I’m on my ALUTO which is set up with gravel gears, something crazy like 44 x 46, so I could just noodle my way up there, which I mostly did. I did Mont Ventoux for the first time in 1999, as a 22yr old pro. It was one of the first iconic mountains I’d ever done. I hadn’t yet done the Tour de France, and it carried all the more importance because of it being where Tommy Simpson died. It was in the days before obligatory helmets, and we raced a lot without them, especially in the mountains which is a madness in hindsight: a cotton cap for protection. I knew that day that I’d be leaving my cap at the Simpson memorial, although I didn’t know where it was exactly on the mountain. I battled up there in my 39 x 23 looking and looking for it on the final slopes. I hadn’t realized he’d gotten so close to the summit. Less than 2km was where he fell off his bike for the last time. I didn’t want to miss it as I wanted to leave my cap as a sign of respect. Graham Watson wanted to capture me going by. Since I was one of the few British pro cyclists at the time, he thought it would be a powerful image. He missed me leaving my cap, not expecting me to do anything like that, and captured me putting my glasses back on my head. I’ve still got the photo. I made a habit of carrying a cap even as my career progressed and we no longer wore them, I’d have it in my pocket ready to drop there.

Wednesday, 23.07.2025

Stage 17: BOLLÈNE > VALENCE 160.4

David’s take: Just called our hotel restaurant from a traffic jam near Grenoble. Our scheduled arrival time is 20:29, their restaurant closes at 20:30. That’s a buzzkill, so it looks like it’s pizza somewhere, the default TdF transfer go-to when all else fails, which it quite often does. It’s raining, and it could be grey and wet the next few days in the Alps which is another buzzkill, more so for the riders but also (more importantly) for us, as it makes the Zone Technique quite a downbeat place. Ned just said, “Aren’t the Alps ugly when it’s wet. Shit isn’t it.” Ned doesn’t like the Alps. For one of the most upbeat people on Planet Earth, it’s surprising how much this mountain range sucks his life force away. It’s almost comical. I think it’s the Tour de France in the Alps that is to blame, because it has to be said, it can be quite the mood-hoover as it feels like we spend most of our time in traffic jams and bad hotels. Today was good racing. It looked as if it wasn’t going to be, with a break of four off the front from the first kilometres then Lidl-Trek and Soudal Quickstep taking control announcing how they intended the race to play out. But then halfway through the stage, INEOS lit it up and ripped the peloton in two in an attempt to reboot the race. It almost worked, unfortunately they didn’t have the strength in depth to follow it through and neither did any other teams in the peloton. That’s third-week vibes. It’s amazing how all the will in the world can’t overcome the body’s overload and refusal to do what you ask of it. I can remember going into the third week and the first phase of the stage being almost slow-motion, as riders would launch like maniacs then boomerang back just as fast as they realised their bodies wouldn’t respond. There aren’t many riders who are still in control of their bodies, and most of them are racing GC.

Thursday, 24.07.2025

Stage 18: VIF > COURCHEVEL COL DE LA LOZE 171.5

David’s take: As I sit here and watch, there are 2km remaining of the neutral zone for the peloton. It’s sunny down at the start, with 172km and 5460m of climbing ahead of them. Vingegaard has announced in his pre-race interview that he’s willing to lose his second place in order to secure yellow. Fighting talk, and I like it. Pogacar seems very relaxed in his pre-race interview, disturbingly so, which is in contrast to the past few days. It’s as if, that now we’re here, on the day he faces his final mountain nemesis, the Col de la Loze, he can put to bed any demons he may have had and face it head-on. And the fact that Jonas is all in for attacking him, it’s exactly how he likes it. I rode most of today’s climbs in the Marmotte sportif a couple of years ago. I had thought it would be fun to go back to the Alps and ride the mountains in a non-professional racing capacity for the first time. It was a terrible, terrible mistake. I don’t know what I’d been thinking; that I could just potter over the Glandon, Telegraph, Galibier and Alp d’Huez and enjoy the experience and soak up the scenery? Delusional behaviour. I realised from the moment the Glandon began why I hadn’t been back in a decade. The wounds were immediately reopened and every bad day at the Tour de France came back in one big landslide of flashbacks. I spent the rest of the day promising myself I’d never go back and do something as stupid again. Although at the same time it gave me so much respect for the thousands of people who do take on such challenges without my experience and equipment. They’re genuinely insane.

Friday, 25.07.2025

Stage 19: ALBERTVILLE > LA PLAGNE 129.9 km

David’s take: I rode up La Plagne this morning. You won’t be surprised to hear it is long, and it is hard. Aren’t they all? Riding these final climbs these past ten days has reminded me that, the truth is, they’re all much of a muchness; it’s very hard to say that one is harder than another. I think I’m getting a bit fitter, negligibly, although slightly noticeable. That’s me done with my biking at the Tour, I’ll be returning my ALUTO to IPT in Paris to be taken back down to Girona Factor HQ. It has served me fabulously. Well, Tadej didn’t win the stage today, and he looked fed up on the final climb. Neither he nor Vingegaard had any teammates left, and so, after a couple of half-committed flexes, Tadej decided simply to ride it home. He became his own domestique. Thymen Arensman seized the moment in between flexes to jump away in what looked like a move with an inevitable outcome, destined to failure. It didn’t though. Tadej just kept it at 30 seconds for most of the climb, bringing it back to 20 seconds in the final kilometres, yet the violent attack we expected from him never came. Jonas had clearly been waiting for it, and he realised too late it wasn’t coming and started sprinting with 250m to go, finishing two seconds behind Thymen on the line with Tadej on his wheel. This in itself was a hugely disrespectful move to Pogacar who hadn’t asked once for him to ride the entire climb, not once. Although I don’t think Pogacar cared. He just wanted it over with. Ned and I were discussing after the stage how we’ve never seen a rider who has effectively won the Tour look so flat in the post-race environment after the final mountain stage. The young man needs a rest.

Saturday, 26.07.2025

Stage 20: NANTUA > PONTARLIER 184.2 km

David says: I write this in what I hope is the final traffic jam of the Tour. We’re on the road to Paris, 467km to go. The Tour de France is one day away from being finished, and everyone is feeling the fatigue. It’s been a hard race, not only for the peloton, but also the circus surrounding it. The first week perhaps lulled us into a false sense of security, as it felt like it was fairly breezing by. But these past days have been gradually wearing us all down. The Alps were the final punch in the face. We were discussing this morning whether Tadej Pogacar’s weariness has been trickling down through everyone here; his role as the current talisman for the sport is more evident than ever. Although spirits are a bit higher now than they were this morning as we all conclude this penultimate stage of racing and set off for the big show in Paris. I was even more invested in the racing than usual today, thanks to Jake Stewart being in the move. I was willing him to win. It wasn’t going to be easy as the breakaway was made up of a formidable group of riders, although on paper Jake and Kaden Groves were the fastest out of the thirteen, making Jake’s day all the more complicated as he and Kaden would be the two riders everyone else would want to get rid of. Although that didn’t happen, in fact it ended up being the complete opposite, Jake and Kaden got rid of everyone else apart from Frank Van den Broek. It was a series of fortunate and unfortunate events that led to this situation; ignoring that, the three of them were off the front with 20km to go. The stars had aligned. There was one problem, Van den Broek wouldn’t ride. This was to be expected, he didn’t stand a chance against the two others in the sprint, and was clearly gambling that Jake and Kaden would accept and they would gamble on their ability to be able to follow him when he attacked. Jake decided to not accept the gamble and tried to call Frank’s bluff, unfortunately Frank did the same, and they were in a double bluff situation. Meanwhile, as the two of them argued with each other about who was going to follow Kaden, Kaden simply accelerated, no doubt incredulous as to how his stars continued to align. Game over. Jake looked distraught after the finish. He’s fully aware days like that don’t happen very often, and it slipped away from him. I think he risks a sleepless night ahead, so close, so far. It’s not over yet. Thanks to the new Paris stage, all bets are off and anything is possible. Paris, here we come, and only 403km to go.

Sunday, 27.07.2025

Stage 21: MANTES-LA-VILLE > PARIS CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES 132.3 km

David's take: By all accounts, this year was one of the toughest ever editions, even the winner said so, as did the runner up, and if they found it hard, what about the other 158 who made it to Paris? They must have found it really, really hard. Respect to them all, and it felt like they received that in Paris. The controversial new circuit was a bigger success than anyone could have imagined, even with the rain, not just for the race it produced, but for the crowds and support every single rider received. It must have been amazing for Tadej Pogacar and Wout van Aert battling for the win, although I think it might have been even more special for those dropped riders who had let go and were shuffling their way to the finish line. They had no reason to be embarrassed or ashamed for being far behind the glorious battle. They will have been able to feel like heroes for a day on the rain soaked cheering streets of Paris. As a final Tour de France stage to commentate on, for the very last time, Ned and I couldn’t have asked for better. We got to witness and share bike racing at its best. We got to do what we love. The Tour de France is exceptional because it wasn’t the athletes who wanted it, it’s not like other sports where at some point the participants sat down and thought, “We need to measure this out and draw some lines, write down some rules, figure out scoring.” Bike racers didn’t come up with the Tour de France, why would they? It was a journalist and a media company who created it. Which perhaps explains better why there are so many unwritten rules in cycling. There's a simple reason, cyclists never thought to write them down, and certainly never thought it was a good idea to create a three weeklong race. All of this makes it what it is: an enigma wrapped in a mystery inside a riddle. We must try not to forget that. It's not just about the racing, and I hope we were able to get that across with ITV, and I hope I was able to do that with this diary. And so the Tour de France is over for another year, and I’m back to my real job as Brand Director at Factor, although similar to commentary it doesn’t feel like a job. I get to work with Rob to help bring his vision for Factor to life, which in a nutshell, is to make the best bikes in the world. It’s my role to show and tell people why they should believe in what we do, which I love doing, because it’s not smoke and mirrors. We live and breathe it, and if you ride a Factor you’ll get it. I hope you keep following what we’re doing because there’s so much to come.