David Millar will climb the Col d'Aubisque today at the Tour de France, look out over the heads of the supporters and squint in search of Paris' Eiffel Tower. The icon marks a goal for him, the finish of a rough ride.
"If I can get to Paris and see the Eiffel tower," he said yesterday, "that will be amazing."
Millar and his Garmin-Transitions team have been kicked around by this Tour de France. Stage one to Brussels was a difficult day for team-mate Tyler Farrar, who was held up in crashes before he was able to have a chance at a sprint win.
The true black day, though, came one day later on the wet, oily roads to Spa.
Millar, Farrar, Julian Dean and team leader Christian Vande Velde all slid and crashed. Vande Velde abandoned the race that night, Farrar soldiered on until his wrist fracture became too much to handle and Millar nearly cracked on Tuesday to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.
He survived, though on the razor's edge between time-cut and physical breakdown. Stepping out of the team bus this morning, half-dressed and five days into a beard, he thought about the race's end in one week in Paris.
Ryder Hesjedal's ride to a possible top ten overall, he explained, helped keep a smile on his face.
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"The only thing that remains for me is Paris," Millar continued.
"The time trial is a bonus. If I can get over these injuries, I have a genuine chance to be up there, but I am facing some of the hardest days to come."
Millar keeps realistic about his chances for the time trial because he knows that the classification riders are typically strong due to their ability to recover day to day. He thinks more about winning at the Vuelta a España, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.
"I don't like being just a number, hanging on for dear life and just being in the gruppetto - which is very often lately. That's not why I do this. I really want to go to the Vuelta to race hard, that's what I love doing."
The Vuelta a España features a 46-kilometre time trial in Peñafiel in its last week. Millar will be up for the task, gaining confidence from his winning ride at the Four Days of De Panne this spring and his Vuelta time trial win last year.
First, though, he is searching for Paris' Eiffel Tower.
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