David Millar achieves 'biggest' win in Three Days of De Panne

David Millar scored one of the biggest wins of his career today, claiming overall victory in the Three Days of De Panne with a commanding display in the final time trial. It followed what he described as an intelligent performance over the three preceding stages of the Belgian race, which left him poised for the overall win going into the final 15km time trial, the discipline in which he specialises. For Millar it was a first stage race win since the Circuit de la Sarthe in 2001, and his first since returning from a two-year ban for doping in 2006. It was also, said the Scot, his most significant. "For me personally, it's the biggest," he said. "Bigger than my Vuelta stage wins [in 2006 and 2009] because this is such a feared race and such a brutal race." Millar finished in the bunch in Thursday's morning road stage and sat fourth overall, 12secs down, before the 14.7km time trial. Just as he did in Sunday's time-trial stage of the Critérium International, in which he beat Alberto Contador into second place, he won the stage in convincing fashion, to claim the overall win by 35secs from Andriy Grivko of Contador's Astana team. Millar, who rides for the American Garmin-Transitions team, said he was especially pleased with his resurgent form after being overlooked by Team Sky, who opted not to sign him on the basis of his ban, despite the 33-year-old having earned widespread respect for his anti-doping campaigning since. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't get some satisfaction from that," he said. "But it's a great joy doing it for my team even if Team Sky didn't exist. "I came here with ambitions to try and win overall. The first day was imperative. I couldn't just sit back and wait for the time trial, and I rode intelligently to put myself in with a chance. I wasn't prepared for the apocalypse of the second day, when the race was ripped to pieces, but it was there that I laid the foundations for victory." Millar will now ride the two cobbled classics, Sunday's Tour of Flanders and the Paris-Roubaix the following week, with, as he put it, "no fear". "I've only started each race once, and didn't finish either, but there's no reason for me to be scared. I feel things are really starting to click and winning has given me huge confidence. After the classics I'm riding the Giro [d'Italia] where I want to do something special."