David Millar's TdF Diaries – Week 2

Another week of unruly racing has resulted in some of the most entertaining stages in recent memory, even if the general classification has solidified in the meantime. Factor’s Brand Director, David Millar stands faithfully at his post as our eyes and ears on the ground, reporting back every night about his unique experiences in the Tour caravan. Among the VIPs, but maybe not VIP enough to get off the mountains as quickly as Emmanuel Macron. We’ve gathered together some highlights from his week 2 dairies, but if you want to get the full flavour of each entry, be sure to sign up to receive his daily emails. There’s still a lot of racing to get through before we hit the Champs in Paris on July 27th.

Sunday, 13.07.2025

Stage 9: CHINON > CHÂTEAUROUX 174.1 km

David’s take: Back to July 13th, 2025, and MvdP is off the front on a mental mission with his teammate Jonas Rickaert. They went from the very start of the stage, initially looking like they were going for the first intermediate sprint 23km into the stage, which they took, and even with Lidl-Trek starting to ride behind they had just under 4mins on the line. Then kept going, now with 120km to go and turning gradually into the tailwind they have 5mins 32seconds. Which is becoming a bit of a problem for the peloton, because the more they turn into the tailwind, which they will, the harder it will be to bring them back. I just saw a quote from Thierry Gouvenou, the technical director of the TdF who in an interview to Daniel Friebe said that if sprinters stages continue to be a slow march to the final 10km (as they have been these past couple of years), they will simply reduce the number of flat days Looks like MvdP and Rickaert are doing all sprinters a favour today, whatever happens. This is far from a done deal, so much can still happen, and the peloton is so powerful, yet if this continues, before long we have a proper race on our hands. He almost made it. That was nuts. Goes to show what happens when you have one of the best riders in the world decide to take on the peloton, so many teams had to burn through riders in the chase, and there were echelon moments causing massive surges behind, and yet still MvdP got so close. By the time it came to the final run for the line none of the sprinters had a full lead out train left, apart from Ackermann who had Jake Stewart. They caught MvdP with 800m to go. And the battle ended between Merlier and Milan, a repeat of Stage 3, only with an average of 50km/h. Respect to Mathieu and Jonas for taking on a mission impossible.

Monday, 14.07.2025

Stage 10: ENNEZAT > LE MONT-DORE PUY DE SANCY 165.3 km

David’s take: It’s July 14th, which is the reason we don’t have a rest day today, which normally would follow Sunday’s Stage 9. I’m sure the entire peloton is over the moon about this. Not only did they not get a rest day, they have been given the gift of racing one of the hardest parcours of this year’s Tour de France. We’re in the Massif Central. It’s infamous for creating some of the toughest days at the TdF, which is often surprising as the mountains are considered, expected even, to be the most brutal. Don’t get me wrong, they are, although it’s different in the mountains. You have your speed and you're stuck with it: your own personal purgatory. The Massif Central is different; it’s proper racing since the climbs are neither long nor short.  They’re an in-between distance that forces you to hang on for that bit longer in the hope of getting over, and the speed is fast enough to create enough of a slipstream to drag you along. The combination delivers a world class Michelin three-star suffering experience, with a similar never-ending number of courses. The mountains are more like a three-course hearty meal: big, but you know what you’re getting yourself into.  

Today nobody knew what was going to happen, and that’s exactly how every Massif Central stage starts.  Julian Alaphilippe was interviewed before the start, he was asked how hard it would be, his answer spoke for every pro cyclist, “You can’t even imagine.” He said it with absolute sincerity, and it made me think, he’s right, even I can’t anymore. 

Tuesday, 15.07.2025

1st Rest Day: TOULOUSE

David’s take: First day off at the Tour, I thought I was cruising this edition, although today I’m tired. I guess stopping does that. It reminds me why the racers go out and ride on their rest days, when to the spectators it seems absurd, “Why don’t you just stay in bed?” The answer being you might not be able to get out of it.  The next day is all the worse if you trick your body and mind into thinking it’s over. I, on the other hand, haven’t had that white noise of fear to provoke me into action. My bike is with the broadcasting truck, and I don’t know where that is, and I’ve made no effort to find out. I am now thinking that maybe I should have put the effort into tracking down my bike, although I think I can risk tricking my body and mind into thinking it’s stopped. I don’t have to worry about being flogged by the peloton tomorrow.

My day of lethargy has meant there’s not much to report, so I figure it’s a good opportunity to talk about bikes. This has been a regular subject between Alex Dowsett and me; we’ve had plenty of time to riff on the subject while he’s been here working with us. He’s also a former pro, and raced on Factor with Israel - Premier Tech. He was a go-to for our engineers anytime they needed rider input/feedback when designing the HANZŌ. Alex loves time trials, I mean, he really loves them.  He basically put up with road racing, which is reminiscent of Chris Boardman, who went as far as stating he didn’t like road racing, which is unfathomable to me. Also worth mentioning, that like Boardman, Alex held the Hour Record, which is one hell of an accomplishment. He won’t mind me saying he’s a proper geek when it comes to cycling tech and training science. Just today we spent most of lunch talking about wheels, so I guess that puts me in the realm of geekdom too.

Wednesday, 16.07.2025

Stage 11: TOULOUSE > TOULOUSE 156.8 km

David’s take: Ah Toulouse, I almost lived here. Back in 1997, my first year as a pro, I moved from the north of France down to Nice to be closer to my new American teammates on Cofidis. It was the first year of Cofidis, and contrary to how Cofidis is regarded these days, back then it was the big thing. The Motorola team had shut up shop at the end of 1996, and Cofidis, under the leadership of the legendary Cyrille Guimard, had recruited Lance Armstrong and his teammates into the new French super team. Yep, that’s how Cofidis was considered back then. Lance was leading the UCI rankings in 1996, and he was diagnosed with cancer while world number one. He never raced for Cofidis, yet I met him as a 19yr old neo-pro at our first team get-together in Lille. He was post-chemo battered, yet seemed full of life, he offered me chewing gum, which I took even though I never chew gum. In Nice I shared an apartment with Bobby Julich. Bobby and I got on really well, although during the year I decided I’d fit in better with the Australians who lived in Toulouse rather than the Americans in Nice. So at the end of the year, I packed my meagre amount of belongings into a rental car and drove to Toulouse. Long story short, I didn’t see the appeal of Toulouse, and after a couple of days got back in the car and drove to Biarritz. No pro cyclists lived there, which at the time, suited me just fine. If I got lonely and needed company, it was a 300km drive back to Toulouse where I’d visit Stuart O’Grady and Henk Vogels for some not so restful R&R. In a nutshell, I’ve spent some time in Toulouse, albeit a quarter of a century ago, how time flies… To finish, and quite appropriate considering where this diary started. On my ride back from doing my recon, via watching the race start, I traversed the old town, in one of the small streets was a bookshop, and they had filled one of the windows with cycling books. My very first directeur sportif, Cyrille Guimard, stared me in the face from the cover of a book about him. I bought it. So there I was, 28 years after first arriving in Toulouse as a neo-pro, riding through the streets as a retired former pro, carrying Cyrille Guimard in a plastic bag.

Thursday, 17.07.2025

Stage 12: AUCH > HAUTACAM 180.6km

David’s take: I’m now writing this from the restaurant terrace, trying to ignore Ned and Pete, which isn’t easy. So, to the race. Today was the GC battle we expected, and revealed the reason Pogacar has been so restrained, until now. This was the stage he was basing his Tour success on, and oh boy, did he hit it hard. It was a strange day, with a third of the peloton slipping off the front. It wasn’t a breakaway, it was a split. The only rider with any semblance of a GC position within it was Carlos Rodriguez, so INEOS were trying to make the most out of it. Long story short, Carlos was dropped and they got nothing from it. Their riding meant there was an average speed of 48km/h to the foot of the Col du Soulor, the first big mountain of this year’s Tour. Mike Woods crossed the summit first, which was impressive, at that point there were only four riders of the original 51 left at the sharp end of the race while behind Visma were taking the race on, which it turns out was their plan, to put the pressure on the first mountain of the day. There was only one flaw to their plan: they dropped themselves, although they did also drop Remco early on, yet somehow he ended up okay and by the finish was one of the rides of the day. Visma slowed up to let their dropped riders catch back on, then rode a pace that could keep them all there. UAE took over coming into Hautacam and the shit hit the fan, quickly. They weren’t in such good shape either, without Almeida, Sivakov sick, Soler dropped, and Yates not firing. Fortunately, Narvaez is flying, and only 1km into Hautacam, Pogacar pushed the launch button and had Narvaez go as hard as he could for as long as he could. It was devastating, even blowing Vingegaard up, at which point Narvaez peeled off and Pogacar set off, 12km from the summit. A long, long way, even for Pogacar. It was an enormous ride. He and Vingegaard were at their limit, only going different speeds. It was such a gradual dismantling, yet it was clear that Pogacar was going very deep. I’ve rarely seen him hurt himself so badly. He destroyed himself until he crossed the finish line, no easing off, no victory salute. He was on a mission to win the Tour de France today, it will be very interesting to see how tackles the rest of the race, because now he knows Vingegaard is beaten, and it will be equally interesting to see how he races.

Friday, 18.07.2025

Stage 13: LOUDENVIELLE > PEYRAGUDES 10.9 km ITT

David says: We’re staying in Bagnères-de-Luchon, a little town, nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains. The Tour de France seems always to pass here, it must if it wants to tackle the famous Pyrenean cols. Bagnères-de-Luchon is surrounded by them. It has an air of Belle Epoque extravagance, albeit a bit tired and run down. It’s not very difficult to imagine what it must have been like at the turn of the twentieth century. The thermal waters and location were a destination for the well-to-do to recuperate from their urban excess. They built a casino here in 1880, as I suppose they realised that the curing waters were too cleansing to develop and maintain a long term business model. Bob Roll is in the same hotel. We bumped into each other at breakfast this morning, so we decided to ride to the finish together. There was only one way, up the Col de Peyresourde, then further up to Peyragudes. Ned and Pete set off shortly before us, they bravely rode the Brompton’s, while Bob and I were on bikes actually designed to tackle the task. It was a lovely ride, quite long, a friendly pace, and surprisingly hot. I always forget about the Peyresourde, which sounds ridiculous as I’ve done it so many times, yet it’s only when I ride it that it all starts coming back to me. This morning at breakfast I couldn’t have told you much about it. Yet I was flooded with memories on the ride, for better and worse. Peyragudes is one of the most beautiful finishes, it’s a small ski resort, perched on the mountain with jaw droppingly grandiose views. The beauty of the location is in sharp contrast to the beast of a road that the race uses to get up there. It’s not actually a road, it’s a runway, an actual runway for planes pitched at an obscene angle making for one of the steepest finishes used in any Tour de France stage.

Saturday, 19.07.2025

Stage 14: PAU > LUCHON-SUPERBAGNÈRES 182.6 km

David's take: I’ve conquered the Pyrenees, albeit in my own micro way, Hautacam, Peyragudes, and today, Superbagnères. One climb a day is enough for me, and they were quite hard. Although to put it into perspective, add up all three and it totals 3150m climbing, whereas today, Stage 14, has 5000m of climbing. That is a lot, and makes it the queen stage of this year’s Tour in most people’s eyes. I’ve been watching the race since the neutral zone. The start was in Pau, a town that has hosted the Tour 67 times, putting it in third behind Paris and Bordeaux as the most visited by the Tour. If you’re interested in TdF trivia. We’ve discussed the stage a fair bit since the race finished, it was a bit of a strange day in that all indications were that UAE were controlling for a stage win for Tadej. I had a theory that it was all going to plan, and UAE did everything right, yet the missing link was Visma stepping in to contribute. Which they didn’t, because they couldn’t. Although the more I think about it, the more I think it’s simpler than that. Thymen Arensman was just too strong, the rest of the break was reeled in without complications, yet Arensman did such a phenomenal ride that it rewrote the script. We expect so much from Pogacar that 3mins at the foot of the Superbagnères seemed within his reach. Now, looking back, he decided it wasn’t worth it. Even for him it would have required a huge effort, and he’s already made those efforts the previous two days. I think he recognised his limits, and that there are still seven stages to go and the Alps to deal with. It was another glimpse of Pogacar’s ability to cool his jets, something we never thought we’d see. It’s another weapon he’s added to his already comprehensive industrial grade race-destroying arsenal. Who would have thought that calming him down would enhance his ability to destroy at will.

Sunday, 20.07.2025

Stage 15: MURET > CARCASSONNE 169.3 km

David's take: Pete and I went for a run this morning, the first we’ve done together at this year’s Tour. I wasn’t up for sport this morning, yet Pete came down in his running gear, then he and Ned announced they were going to wash the car, so I asked Pete to wash my bike, and if he did, I’d go for a run with him. So we went for a run, so glad I did. Pete sent a message to our WhatsApp group after, “Fucking loved that! My favourite thing about mine and David’s runs is we don’t talk.” I hadn’t paid attention to that, he’s right, we do enjoy the silence. The run was pinnacle tourism. We mapped a route to the Carcassonne castle and ran around the walls. It made for an all-time Tour de France adjacent sporting moment. This stage was about as Tour de France as you can get. The racing never really calmed down, the final average speed for the day was 47.4km/h, considering there was 2500m climbing in 169km is hard to comprehend. The tailwind was the fuel that fed that peloton’s fire, and it was burning brightly today. There are so many teams that want to win, and so few chances available, because when it comes to the mountains, there are only a handful of riders who stand a chance, and many of those have no idea how they’ll feel or what they’re capable of until it’s happening, like Arensman yesterday. Whereas on stages like today there are so many more riders and teams who know it’s their only chance, because even in their wildest dreams a magical day isn’t going to happen in the mountains. It was the wild west on the roads of Occitanie today. Eventually there were eight riders left standing at the front of the race, four of them had already won stages at the Tour which shows the quality of those who’d survived. Yet there was one who was smarter and stronger than all of them, Tim Wellens. It was a masterclass in bike racing. He knew where to attack and how to do it. When we’re young racers we’re often told to only attack once, and when you do, it has to be devastating. That is the textbook move. You follow, you do the minimum, you watch, and you plan, and when you go, you don’t look back. That was Tim Wellens today, it was an awesome display of bike racing. Victor Campenaerts was second. So the two most visible domestiques for the first and second on GC, were first and second on the stage, which I think says a lot about how the super teams recruit. They’re not only strong, they’re smart.

A shared love of the Tour

Why do we all love the Tour de France? How can a teenager growing up in Hong Kong fall in love with a sport while watching VHS Tour recap tapes of years past? Or a little girl in Colorado who was thrilled by the greats like Bernard Hinault, Greg Lemond and Andy Hampsten racing the Coors Classic in downtown Denver. Or a young man in Taipei testing his skillz BMXing and strength fixed gearing? Different countries. Different ages. Different inspirations. But all the same love of the sport. What’s your Tour de France love affair origin story? Be sure to sign up to David’s TDF Diaries if you want to have inside access to the Tour through his eyes.