Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar

By his 18th birthday David Millar was living and racing in France, sleeping in rented rooms, tipped to be the next English-speaking Tour winner. A year later he'd realised the dream and signed a professional contract with the Cofidis team, who had one Lance Armstrong on their books. He perhaps lived the high life a little too enthusiastically - high on a roof after too much drink, he broke his heel in a fall and before long the pressure to succeed had tipped over into doping. Here, in a full and frank autobiography, David Millar recounts the story from the inside: he doped because 'cycling's drug culture was like white noise' and because of peer pressure. 'I doped for money and glory in order to guarantee the continuation of my status.' Five years on from his arrest, Millar is clean and reflective and holds nothing back in this account of his dark years.

About the Author :
David Millar was born in Malta in 1977. He was won stages of the Tour de France and Tour of Spain. He is now a part-owner of the Garmin-Chipotle team and a key figure of the World Anti-doping Agency's athletes committee.

Review :
His tale - bizarrely - has become just about the most inspiring in all of cycling, perhaps any sport. If you want to find out how cyclists dope, it's here; if you want to discover why they do it, there has never been a more vivid account. But the defining achievement of RACING THROUGH THE DARK is that it makes you believe in cycling again. One of the great first-person accounts of sporting experience... laceratingly honest, detailing every twist in the argument by which he convinced himself to take a step he had previously considered unthinkable... anyone seeking to understand the motivation of a drug cheat, or wondering why such a man should be allowed back into his sport will find their curiosity satisfied here. Unbeatable as a snapshot of the professional peloton, its agonies and ecstasies... Emotional yet in no way overwrought, Millar's memoirs read like a parable more than a manifesto... essential reading for all young riders as well as fans. The greatest strength of this plainly but compellingly told story is that it doesn't shock. Millar is searingly honest about his own failings and neuroses but his book is intelligent, subtle, nuanced, not flowery or overly descriptive - and it is all the more powerful for it...This will go down as one of the great sporting autobiographies RACING THROUGH THE DARK will be a shoo-in for every award going this year with its controlled writing about the ins and outs of his descent into doping and personal crisis and his return to the world A sporting masterpiece, a timeless snapshot of a sportsman plumbing the depths and miraculously bouncing back both as a rider and a man. [An] excellent autobiography... well written... surely one of the sports books of the year. He has, as this excellent work testifies, seen it all and done it all, full throttle. This is a shocking expose of the corruption at the heart of a wonderful sport. Those who run cycling at every level would be well advised to closely study it, though history tells us they probably won't. Britain's most intriguing cyclist... this is no ordinary memoir... this is an extremely rare first-hand account of what drugs and doping have done to the sport of cycling over the last two decades The story of his [Millar's] fall from grace is gripping. An incredibly personal, moving and compelling story. Millar recounts with stark, unshirking honesty the spiralling pressure which saw him drawn into a murky world of doping A well written, well paced and addictive (appropriate n'est pas?) book. None of its 354 pages can be considered padding and though there will probably always be murky goings on in top level cycle racing when so much is at stake, David Millar is to be comgratulated not only on 'fessing up, and recounting every last humiliation in print, but for giving us mere mortals an inkling into the machinations of the modern peloton, both good and bad. Outstanding... This is a stunning account, comparable to Matt Rendell's THE DEATH OF MARCO PANTANI... His [Millar's] book is already being mooted as a contender for the year's best sports book. Searingly honest Brutal, honest, realistic - words that can be used to describe this fantastic, sweeping view of a pro cyclist... This is purely and simply sports book of the year and Milar deserves all the credit not only for turning his life around, but for writing an exceptional autobiography. Well written and worth reading. One of the better sports books, which non-cycling enthusiasts will find easy reading and fascinating. "Gripping... The subject matter for the most part might be bleak but the passion that underpins Millar's renaissance as he falls back in love with the sport for its own sake is ultimately uplifting.' "A great autobiography from the eloquent pen and mind of the Scottish pro cyclist.' "A searing portrayal of the moral ambiguities of drug taking.' "Redemption is literally the last word in this brave book' "Thought-provoking' "A compelling read' "As gripping in telling Millar's personal tale as it is in detailing the dark underbelly that once threatened to envelop professional cycling.' "In this vivid first person account Millar not only reveals his personal descent but the jaw-dropping scale on which doping took place.' A superb book....Millar's fall and rise is a modern morality tale 'A harrowing account of his [Millar's] fall from grace and subsequent redemption.'