David MIllar (Scotland) won the bronze medal in the men's road race at the 2010 Commonwealth Games (Image credit: AFP Photo)
David Millar won Scotland's first ever Commonwealth Games road cycling medal with bronze at the end of an epic road race in the centre of Delhi.
Millar declared himself "very proud" after finishing third to Allan Davis of Australia and Hayden Roulston of New Zealand, who, with Millar, Dave McCann of Northern Ireland and Chris Sutton of Australia, were in the five-man group that fought it out for the medals.
In the closing stages Millar was the main aggressor, trying repeatedly to break clear in a bid to avoid having to sprint against Davis, one of the fastest finishers in the world. But with Sutton able to counter Millar's attacks and then lead out Davis for the sprint, Millar had to be content with bronze.
Millar was well supported with a full complement of six Team Scotland riders in the race, and he paid tribute at the finish to the work done by his teammates. In the first half of the race it was David Lines, James McCallum and Ross Creber, while Evan Oliphant and Andy Fenn were the riders assigned to support him - and be in the mix themselves - in the second half of a 168km race run off in 41-degree heat.
"I really enjoyed racing with this jersey and with this team," said Millar. "Three of the boys were looking after me in the first half of the race, and it was Evan and Andy's job to follow the attacks when they started coming in the second half.
"They all excelled - they were as good as my pro' team. They were all very motivated and I think motivation has a big effect. I wouldn't have got the medal without them and I'm proud of them all.
"I feel very proud of myself too," he continued. "I haven't raced with such heart and with such passion for a long time. I came here for [Wednesday's] time trial, but I went really deep today, and I'd like to say thank you to Scotland for having me.
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"It was an epic race, it just kept going, and it goes to show that you don't need a hard course to make a great race. It was very hard. I couldn't believe it when I kept attacking, kept whittling it down, I was like, 'this is on'.
"I attacked so many times towards the end. I knew I'd get beaten in a sprint, because I'm not a sprinter, so I just kept trying to whittle down the group and get away on my own. I'm happy with a bronze medal. I came here to get gold in the time trial so I'm happy."
