We officially kicked off the DAVID MILLAR PROJECT during a sold-out event with David Millar at the ICA in London. And what an evening of cycling, film and cocktails it was!

We started with a private drinks reception at the ICA bar for selected guests, including prolific sports journalists, authors, representatives from key cycling organisations, and investors for the project. David Millar was able to meet everyone in person, alongside the film’s director Finlay Pretsell and producer Sonja Henrici.  ICA’s bar had been lovingly decorated with a selection of Millar’s most precious jerseys, charting the history of his career. Drinks were provided by The Famous Grouse.

An exclusive unveiling of the film-in-progress followed the drinks reception. Opening with a screening of Finlay’s first award-winning cycling film, Standing Start, the two discussed how this film brought them together, seeding the vision for collaborating on a feature-length film that captured the reality of road racing at a professional level. David Millar said:

I love cycling, I’m a racer, I love everything about it. It’s my whole life, everything I do pivots around cycling, and I want us to create a film that nobody has ever seen before, and I want it to be something that stands the test of time [...] It would be lovely for me at the end of my career to bookend my career with a thank you and a goodbye, to show that this is what pro-cycling is to me.

Exclusive footage from the first test shoots was shown during the 90-minute talk which was chaired by author and journalist Richard Moore. The audience, consisting largely of cycling fans, were fascinated by the film clips and David’s openness about the best and worst moments of his career, including how he feels about retiring in 2014.

The evening was well covered in the media too with articles from the Guardian, Rouleur, Cyclosport and the Daily Mail, and much love from the Twittersphere.

For those of you that couldn’t make the event, it has been released as a podcast by Richard Moore as part of the Humans Invent series.