'I don't know if I'll be flying or dying' - David Millar to race Unbound Gravel alongside elites

You might think it fortunate that David Millar and Lachlan Morton are friends. Millar, a retired Tour de France stage winner, will make his debut at the 200-mile Unbound Gravel this weekend, riding alongside the elites. Morton won the same event last year. Surely the Australian would have some golden advice?

“He’s pretty useless, bless him,” says Millar. “When I was speaking to him about [the Traka] 560 – we went for a ride a couple of weeks before – I asked him a couple of questions and realised it was just pointless, because he’s like, ‘Ah, you can just ride through.’

“For him, he’s done all these sorts of things, so his perception of what’s possible has been pushed so far that he’s got such a sort of pragmatism about it… I’d recommend, if anybody wants advice on doing ultras, don’t ask Lachlan Morton, because he just takes it all in his stride.”

Millar hopes he too will take racing in his stride when he lines up in Kansas this Saturday. It will be the 48-year-old Brit’s first taste of American gravel, at the calendar’s marquee event. His goal is clear: make it to the finish line.

“I’m going in with a fairly open mind,” he tells Cycling Weekly. “I literally don’t know if I’m going to be flying or dying, or even if I can finish it.

“Knowing me, I’ll probably start out going as hard as I can, just to see what it’s like and see what the level is.” He won't try to follow the pros, though. “I made that mistake at Santa Vall earlier in the year and I lasted 2km. Those days are over.”

In the build-up to Unbound, Millar completed the Traka 560 earlier this month, riding 560km unsupported over 30 hours on gravel trails near his home in Girona, Spain. The event, he says, gave him a “huge paradigm shift in distance”, but left him “buckled” and nursing a busted knee.

“I was a mental milkshake, just completely broken, like a walking zombie,” he says, recalling the hallucinations he experienced mid-race, and the fatigue that followed. “It took me to a pretty weird place that I was kind of fascinated by.”

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Millar was known throughout his racing career for his speed against the clock. He won time trial stages at the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, and retired in 2014, aged 37.

In a newly released documentary about his Traka 560 ride, Millar said he reached the “lowest point in my life” two and a half years ago.

“I’d sunk into alcoholism and lost all meaning for life,” he said in a candid piece to camera. “I’d stopped riding my bike, I’d stopped doing sport, I’d never been as unhealthy as I was. I woke up in the morning kind of not looking forward to the day.”

Together with his sister Fran, now the CEO of Rapha, he took part in his first off-road event in 2023 in South Africa’s Cape Epic. Millar has since competed in the Migration Gravel Race in Kenya, the Traka, and other gravel events near his home, challenges he has found “very fulfilling”.

“Now I have a very deep understanding of why people do it, because I think it takes them out of their comfort zone. It gives them an experience that’s so far removed from their everyday life,” he says.

Alongside his full-time role as brand director of Factor Bikes, Millar has done a lot of his Unbound training indoors, on the cycling platform Zwift. He’ll ride Factor’s OSTRO Gravel on race day, a bike that’s so fast, he says, “I broke the Rocacorba road descent [record] on it three weeks ago”.

How is he approaching his debut at gravel’s biggest event? “Unbound is about going out there and getting amongst it, and hoping I don’t puncture,” he says.

“I’m kind of just excited about it. I’ve got no trepidation for it. I’m more worried that, if it rains, I have to go through one of those kilometres of mud walking scenarios.”

The Life Time Unbound Gravel 200 takes place in Kansas, USA on 31 May. The race can be streamed live, for free, on the Life Time Grand Prix YouTube channel from 10am CT (4pm BST).