Recently crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Mark Cavendish, has spoken out about David Millar’s continued life-time Olympic ban, saying that he believes for Team GB to stand a good chance in the 2012 Road Race they need the veteran Scot on board. Speaking on the BBC Cavendish, the 2011 Tour de France green jersey winner and World Road Race champion, put his case bluntly, stating: ‘If we want to win the Olympic road race, we need Dave.’
Millar admitted back in 2004 to taking performance-enhancing drugs and served a two-year ban before returning to the sport and becoming an outspoken champion for clean cycling (he now serves on the World Anti-Doping Agency athletes panel) but is still condemned to a lifetime ban under British Olympic Association rules which have been in force since 1992. Britain is the last remaining Olympic committee to enforce such a hard line. There remains considerable disharmony not only between national committees but also the International Olympic Committee (IOC), World Anti-Doping Agency and The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
