Furious Millar Forces Changes at the Top

David Millar reacted quickly and decisively to his heart-breaking defeat in Saturday's prologue time-trial by having the team manager of his Cofidis squad Alain Bondue demoted in a reshuffle that may prove a turning point in the Scot's career. The mechanical problem that cost him victory by a margin of just 0.08sec prompted him to assert himself as leader for the first time in his six years with the team.

"As of today, a lot of things changed," Millar said at yesterday's stage start. Bondue, the genial former professional who was blamed by Millar for choosing the equipment which led to the Scot's problems, will play no further part in the team's management but will deal with logistics, and he has been replaced as directeur sportif by the coach Francis Van Londersele.

"It came directly from me and [the sponsor] François Migraine," Millar said.

Much as poor preparation by Chris Boardman's squad GAN cost him the yellow jersey in the 1994 Tour, Millar has taken responsibility for his team, although the episode may also lead him to decide that his future lies elsewhere.

He is out of contract with Cofidis at the end of the year and they are now, he said, "on probation for the rest of the Tour".

Millar added: "Whether I sign a new contract with them depends on the next few weeks. About myself, I'm not worried. I know I'm the strongest in the race at the moment."

As he sprinted out of a corner in the final kilometre of the time-trial over a four-mile course starting and finishing at the Eiffel Tower, Millar had the stage in his pocket: he was 5sec clear of the man who eventually won, the Australian Brad McGee. But as he accelerated his chain "jumped" - it lost contact briefly with the sprockets on his back wheel - and subsequently fell off the large chainring that is connected to the pedals.

Four other Cofidis cyclists had the same trouble, pointing to an equipment fault. One, the Spaniard Luis Perez, injured his knee when it hit the bars after a similar "jump". Millar blames Bondue for failing to obtain the correct equipment from the team's suppliers. "He looks after the contracts and kit, and it's not good enough. We never have the stuff we need. I have to get what I want from ads in magazines."

Immediately after he crossed the line, the outraged Millar went to his team's van, threw his bike in front of the staff, took the sponsor, Migraine, by the shoulder and led him to the nearby ONCE squad. "Look at the passion and the heart they put into their kit," he said. "I've been saying for a long time that we lack that at Cofidis.

"He [Migraine] has now understood there is a problem with Cofidis. For five or six years we have had the same problem. We have a super sponsor, and can be the best team in the world, but it has to be sorted out."

Bondue, however, felt that Millar had in part created the difficulty. "We have had no trouble with the chainrings all season. Yesterday, two riders had problems early on, we realised, and we said to David that he should change it, but he wanted to stick with what he had."

Ironically, the debacle came after Bondue and Migraine accused Millar of a lack of commitment. Ear lier this season Bondue said he felt that Millar should stop "having resolutions that last two weeks" and Migraine said he considered that Millar was frittering away his talent.

In three years' time, if London's bid to host a stage on the Tour in 2006 succeeds, and assuming he has got his bike parts in order, Millar will have a chance to pull on the yellow jersey in front of his home crowd.

An eight-man delegation from the capital, including the Royal Parks, the Metropolitan Police, the mayor's office and Transport for London, visited the prologue in Paris to see for themselves how a Tour start in a capital city is managed.

"They were just looking at the size and scale of it," said one close to the bid. "They were very impressed by the chic, the efficiency and passion. You can describe it to someone all you like but you need to see it for yourself."