'Emotional' Millar thanks Scottish support for time-trial win

(REUTERS)

Scottish cyclist David Millar was overjoyed at winning gold in the men's time trial for the nation that has supported him through thick and thin.

The 33-year-old was in imperious form on the 40km Noida Expressway course in Delhi to win Scotland's first Commonwealth Games road title, with Alex Dowsett of England taking silver and Australia's Luke Durbridge bronze.

Tara Whitten of Canada won the women's 29km event, with Linda Villumsen of New Zealand in silver and Julia Shaw, 45 and taking part in her first Commonwealth Games, taking bronze for England.

The riders set off at one-minute intervals but Millar passed the three men who set off immediately in front of him to stop the clock in 47 minutes 18.66 seconds and win by a margin of 54.82sec from Dowsett.

Millar, who took the bronze in Sunday's road race, said: "It's been a big goal all year – probably the biggest, actually – so to achieve it feels great. It's the first chance I've ever had to ride for Scotland, so it was quite emotional on the podium.

"When you're so focused on the event you forget why you do it, and why it's so important to you. But when I was standing on the podium and the flag was going up, and the whole team was standing in front of me, singing 'Flower of Scotland', it hit home what it meant to me."

Millar is the subject of a British Olympic Association ban for use of the banned blood-booster erythropoietin early in his career, but is now on the athletes' commission for the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The Scot, who lives in Girona, Spain, was granted special dispensation to compete in Delhi by Commonwealth Games Scotland to compete and paid tribute to them. "They believed in me and they've helped me through, and this is a little way to say thank you," he said.

"I've lived all over the place my whole life, but I am Scottish. My heart's in Scotland. That came home on the podium."