[8][9] Upon his return from his ban, Millar became an anti-doping campaigner, a stance which eventually resulted in journalist Alasdair Fotheringham describing him as an 'elder statesman' of cycling.

[12] The family returned to the United Kingdom, and lived at RAF Kinloss in Scotland before moving to Aylesbury, 60 km north-west of London.

At King George V School he chose mathematics, economics and geography as his A-level, pre-university, examination subjects, then switched to art, graphics and sports studies at his father's suggestion.

[14] In his first professional season, Millar won the prologue of the Tour de l'Avenir and the competition for the best young rider in the Mi-Août Breton.

Millar won a gold medal for Malta in the 2001 Games of the Small States of Europe,[20] held in San Marino.

Team cars stalled on the steepest part, some unable to restart because their tires slipped on messages painted by fans.

[22] Millar was dining in a restaurant with Dave Brailsford[26] in Bidart, near Biarritz, on 23 June 2004 when he was approached by three plainclothes policemen of the Paris drug squad at 8.25pm.

[28] After searching his home for two and a half hours they found empty phials of Eprex, a brand of the blood-boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO), and two used syringes.

[29] Police, looking to find out more about the drugs found on Madejak, turned their attention to another rider on the team, Philippe Gaumont, as he arrived at Orly airport on 20 January 2004.

Millar denied the claim to the investigating judge, and said that team doctor Menuet was the best person he had ever met and that he was "like a father to me at races.

Millar's statement to the judge stated that he had succumbed to the pressure of racing, the expectations placed on him by British fans, and an inability to make close friends.

Winning the prologue of the Tour de France made things worse; he had worn the maillot jaune of leadership – his "dream", he said – and when it was all over he was back in his apartment with no friends and just a television for company.

[citation needed] Millar moved to Hayfield, on the edge of the Peak District of northern England,[38][39] to be close to the Manchester Velodrome where British cycling has its headquarters.

Millar was part of a five-man winning break on stage five of the 2008 Giro d'Italia when his chain broke in the last kilometre[citation needed] and he flung his bike to the roadside.

Millar had a number of high placings in major time trials earlier in the season – he finished third in the prologue of the 2010 Tour de France and second in stage three of the Critérium du Dauphiné.

Millar then matched his best clean[clarification needed] placing at the Men's World Time-Trial Championships, finishing second behind Fabian Cancellara.

[52] He recovered in time for the Giro d'Italia, finishing second on stage 3 to take the pink jersey as leader of the general classification.

[54] He later won the time-trial stage 21 of the Giro, meaning that he became only the third British rider – after Robert Millar and Mark Cavendish – to achieve victories in all three Grand Tours during his career.

In June he published his autobiography titled Racing Through the Dark, which Richard Williams in The Guardian wrote was "one of the great first-person accounts of sporting experience".

[59] He won stage 12 by escaping with four other riders, arriving five kilometres (3.1 mi) from the finish line in Annonay–Davézieux with more than ten minutes of an advantage over the bunch.

Millar and GB teammates Bradley Wiggins, Ian Stannard and Chris Froome were forced[citation needed] to set the tempo for the majority of the race, with little help from the other nations[citation needed], and were eventually unable to reel back a thirty-man breakaway that had gone clear on the final climb of the Box Hill circuit, leaving Cavendish to come in forty seconds behind the winner, Alexander Vinokourov.

[63] Millar retired from professional cycling after the 2014 season[64] with his last competitive start being at the Bec CC Hill Climb in October.

Intended as an insight into the world of professional cycling, the film took on themes of aging and retirement as it traced Millar's growing realisation that he was unable to perform at his previous levels.

[68] In March 2015 Millar revealed he was coaching former teammate Ryder Hesjedal,[69] and he has taken a mentoring role with the Great Britain under-23 cycling squad.

[70] In 2018, he announced that he would challenge incumbent CPA president Gianni Bugno for the leadership of the organisation, running on a manifesto which advocated democratic reforms to the union's voting system, a financial audit of its finances, and improving communication with riders.

[72] Millar launched his 'Chpt3' brand in 2015, collaborating with various partners to produce a range of cycling-related products, including bikes and clothing.

[74] Millar also co-hosts Never Strays Far, a "cycling-adjacent" podcast, with fellow ITV commentator Ned Boulting and former pro Peter Kennaugh.

In 2013, while giving consultation to the production of the film The Program, Millar hit his head on a low-hanging beam while walking through a hotel.

[79] He is not related to Robert Millar, now living as Philippa York, a fellow road cyclist from the west of Scotland whose main success came in the mid-1980s.