Scotland’s Commonwealth Games gold medallist David Millar was the star attraction at the 2010 Braveheart Cycling Fund Dinner, with an appearance that caught MCs David Harmon and Anthony McCrossan by surprise.
With Mark Cavendish and Lizzie Armitstead already on the stage, lining up with other top riders including Charly Wegelius, Adam Blythe, Russell Downing and Matt Brammeier, as well as retired stars Henrik Redant and Sean Kelly, Harmon conveyed Millar’s apologies for missing the dinner to the 380-strong, sold-out gathering.
But as a film of Millar’s Games performance began to play – to a soundtrack of Flower of Scotland – a kilted Millar made his surprise appearance on stage. Interviewed by Harmon, he praised his Scotland team-mates in Delhi, where he won bronze in the road race and gold in the time trial, and expressed his gratitude to the support he’d received from Scotland.
Afterwards, Millar was invited to become the Braveheart Fund’s second patron, joining Sir Chris Hoy. “If you’ll have me, then I would consider it an honour and a privilege,” responded Millar.
The Braveheart Fund was established by former British champion Brian Smith in 2003 to support young Scottish cyclists with racing and training costs.
The eighth Braveheart dinner honoured the fund’s cyclist of the year, with Charline Joiner, the silver medallist in the team sprint at the Commonwealth Games, receiving her award from Millar. “If I’d been told a year ago that I’d win a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games, and now this, I would never have believed it,” said Joiner.
Cavendish, meanwhile, won over the audience with an interview in which he again paid tribute to his Isle of Man team-mates at the recent Commonwealth Games in Delhi. The fifteen-time Tour de France stage winner also said that his long-term ambition is to beat Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 stage wins.
“But that will be very difficult,” said Cavendish. “To win one stage at the Tour is difficult and special, and that’s all I try to do when I start.”
Asked to offer some advice to Brammeier, his old friend and new HTC-Columbia team-mate, Cavendish joked: “Get training – you’re going to be doing a lot of work on the front next year.”
Cavendish – who hinted at a future career as a performer by wowing the audience with a magic trick – also offered his backing to the Braveheart Fund. And he put his money where his mouth was by getting involved in a bidding war during the auction with Millar for a Sean Kelly-signed World Cup leader’s jersey. Cavendish eventually won, paying £1,500 for the item.
The auction raised £35,000 in total, with an authentic Maglia Rosa and race number, signed by 2010 Giro d’Italia winner Ivan Basso, commanding the highest sum – £2,000.
