Introducing...
Every month, we introduce one of the Kingston Wheelers. Now it's the turn of Yves Millière. He's swapped the sunshine and mountains of the Côte d'Azur for London. Yves has ridden at the highest levels in France and is a former Regional Champion of the Côte d'Azur. The 2004 Kingston Wheelers road race champion, he should get some great results in 2005.
Name: Yves Millière
Age: 29
Significant Others: loads of people but mainly my twin brother, David, and my parents - Danielle and Michel - and my older sister, Elodie.
What made you start cycling? madness... (the true story is I was doing some cycling tours with friends when I was 14 and really enjoyed riding in the mountains; I then joined a cycling club almost immediately to compete.
Why did you join Kingston Wheelers? the same! Actually, when I first rode with the guys (4 of them) on a Sunday morning ride, I felt so pleased despite the weather conditions (guess, it was pissing down) that I decided to join immediately.
Date you joined the Club: around April 2004.
Who is your favourite pro or inspiration? For a long time, Laurent Fignon ("il Professore") for his very clever approach to cycling with a lot of "panache" as well, I also really enjoyed his "fights" against Hinault and Lemond, some of the greatest champions ever. More recently, Jalabert ("Jaja") and Virenque ("Vivi", I just made that one up). I'm a bit patriotic, I know.
What bike do you ride? Look KG481i (Jaja's bike!).
Give us a brief cycling background: I started competition when I was 15 (cadet 1), didn't finish my first race. I started to have good results when I was Junior (17-18), especially in the mountains. Won my first race when I was 19 only (first year as a Senior) as a Regional Series and was National Series the year after, but couldn't really concentrate on cycling, because of my studies, so had to drop competitions for some time. I started competitions again in 2000 after 4 years break and did my best year ever in 2002: I won only one race but that was the "Cote d'Azur" championships FSGT (kind of equivalent to Surrey League), came 4 times 2nd and 5 times 3rd the same year (as you know, I don't have a very good sprint!) + other good results.
What was your best performance? I came 19th in the "Cote d'Azur" Championships FFC (the highest racing level in France) in 2002, with a few Elite riders taking part. The race was very tough for a championship, with a 18 km climb after about 60km, 135km to ride in total. A break away went through quite early in the race (about 15 guys), with most of the favourites, apart from one or two only. I was about 3-4 min behind in the main group, and started the climb. Quite quickly, many riders dropped and a group of 6 riders broke clear. Towards the end of the "col", one guy and myself finished the climb dropping the 4 other guys and passing about 10 others from the early break away. We both did the fastest climb, as we took about 1'30'' to the rest of the leading group (about 5 riders left in front of the race). I was on my way to a good result, unfortunately, a "fringale" (no more petrol in the engine!) stopped me and I really struggled to do the last 20 km... I ended 19th then, the guy I did the climb with finished 2nd behind one of his team mate, who actually was the favourite and in the early break away. Definitely my best memory ever in a race, I was extremely competitive and, it's hard to believe I know, but I was 6-7kg lighter than now (52kg at that point of time), so no wonder why I was flying in the mountains!
What was your worst performance? Goodwood back in October, amongst many of them! I got dropped on this flat race after only 1/3 of the race... and didn't even bothered to finish.
What is your favourite race food? Pasta bolognese.
Where is your favourite cycling location? The mountains around Nice.
Most likely to say: "Putain... allez les gars."
Least likely to say: (can't think about anything)
Yves moved back to France at the end of 2005 after a great season. To read an account of Yves's time in London, click here.
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