Veteran British cyclist David Millar is to join ITV’s coverage of the 2014 Tour de France which begins on Saturday with the Grand Depart in Yorkshire.
Millar will lend his expert insight and analysis to ITV’s on-screen team during the first three days of coverage when the Tour is based Britain.
He will work alongside the channel’s lead presenter Gary Imlach, reporters Ned Boulting and Matt Rendell, fellow British cycling star Chris Boardman, as well as commentators Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen.
David is the only British rider to have worn all the Tour de France jerseys and is due to retire from professional racing at the end of 2014 and this year’s Tour, his 13th as a rider, was supposed to be his last, but he was not selected to take part by his team Garmin-Sharp.
One of the sport’s biggest and outspoken characters, Millar’s Tour career began in 2000 with a bang when he won the opening time trial at Futuroscope with a ride that shocked the cycling world and made him only the fourth Briton to wear the coveted leader’s yellow jersey.
After confessing to doping in 2004, Millar returned to the Tour immediately after his suspension ended and was reborn as an anti-doping campaigner.
In 2011 he was part of the Garmin squad that won the team time trial stage, while in 2012 he added another road race stage win by outsprinting France’s Jean-Christophe Peraud in Annonay.
For his country, Millar has won two world time trial silver medals and time trial gold and road race bronze at the 2010 Commonwealth Games for Scotland, and was captain of the team that helped Mark Cavendish win world road race gold in 2011.
Millar now expects to defend his time trial title in the Commonwealth Games for Scotland and is scheduled to end his career this September with the Vuelta a Espana and possibly the world road race championships.
The Scotman will be alongside ITV presenters Gary Imlach and Crhsi Boardman in the on-site studio for the first three stages based in England, running from Leeds to Harrogate, York to Sheffield, and Cambridge to London, all of which will be shown live and in full on both ITV and ITV4, with daily live coverage of the rest of the Tour to be shown on ITV4.
It is the fifth time ITV has screened daily live coverage of whole Tour and a total of 98 hours of coverage will be devoted to the event this year in live and highlights programming.
Alongside terrestrial TV coverage, ITV Player will feature live streaming of all ITV and ITV4’s coverage, while a dedicated website – ITV.com/tourdefrance – will feature highlights and exclusive features.
Fans can also keep up-to-date with the latest developments from the Tour via the official @ITVCycling Twitter feed.
Last year, ITV signed a new long-term deal to carry on screening exclusive terrestrial coverage of cycling’s greatest showpiece until 2019.
Click on the link below to find out further details about ITV’s coverage of the 2014 Tour de France.
TOUR DE FRANCE 2014 LIVE ON ITV SPORT – SOTB’s GUIDE
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