Philippa York was born on Robert Millar on 13 September 1958 and is a Scottish journalist and former professional road racing cyclist.
77 Facts About Philippa York
2.
Philippa York won the "King of the Mountains" competition in the 1984 Tour de France and finished fourth overall.
3.
Philippa York started the Tour de France eleven times, finishing eight times.
4.
Philippa York finished second in the 1987 Giro d'Italia and won the King of the Mountains classification.
5.
Philippa York reduced her public commitments in 2000 following hostile stories regarding rumours of her gender transition, and after an appearance as Millar at the 2002 Commonwealth Games left public life altogether.
6.
Philippa York was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland, as Robert Millar.
7.
At one time destined for a career as a factory engineer, Philippa York attended Shawlands Academy in the south of the city.
8.
In 2017, Philippa York revealed that she had first felt "different" aged five, but was unaware that this difference came from discomfort with having a male body.
9.
Philippa York initially began riding for Glenmarnock Wheelers cycling club and quickly established herself as a leading amateur road racing rider.
10.
Philippa York was a relatively small man meaning she had comparatively less weight to carry uphill and she excelled as a specialist hill and mountain cyclist.
11.
Philippa York won the Scottish junior title in 1976 and was Scottish hill-climb champion the following year.
12.
Philippa York was twenty-first in the Milk Race, and won the British amateur road race championship.
13.
Philippa York finished seventh as per the Tour de Romandie and was the first of six occasions in which she would end the Dauphine in the top ten in the General Classification.
14.
In 1983 Philippa York came second in the Criterium du Dauphine Libere with LeMond again finishing a place above her.
15.
The only Pyrenean stage of that tour, Philippa York won the day six seconds ahead of Pedro Delgado.
16.
Philippa York finished fourteenth overall, twenty-three minutes behind the winner, Laurent Fignon and sandwiched in between two riders who would figure prominently in her career, Stephen Roche in thirteenth and Delgado in fifteenth.
17.
Philippa York ended the race in sixth overall behind winner Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche, Bernard Hinault, Michel Laurent and Phil Anderson.
18.
Philippa York enjoyed success in the Grand Prix du Midi Libre winning a stage and finishing fourth overall.
19.
Philippa York was forty-one seconds ahead of Luis Herrera with Delgado a further twenty seconds behind in third.
20.
Philippa York finished fourth overall with Fignon winning for the second successive year and Hinault and LeMond ahead of Philippa York.
21.
Philippa York won the "King of the Mountains" polka dot jersey, the first time a native English speaker had won this jersey.
22.
Philippa York finished seventh in the Volta a Catalunya, won by Kelly.
23.
Philippa York took over the race lead on stage ten, a stage won by Kelly.
24.
Philippa York held the lead going into what has become one of the most infamous days' racing in the history of the event.
25.
Philippa York started the day just ten seconds ahead of Francisco Rodriguez with Spain's Pello Ruiz Cabestany 65 seconds further behind in third.
26.
At the foot of the second climb, the Cotos, Philippa York punctured, meaning once the puncture had been tackled Philippa York had to chase to get back to Rodriguez and Cabestany.
27.
However, Philippa York was unaware that Delgado, in the mountains around his Segovia home town that he knew so well, had launched an attack.
28.
Philippa York had no team-mates in the group with Rodriguez and Cabestany as they had been unable to keep up.
29.
Philippa York beat Sean Kelly, the previous overall winner, by three seconds.
30.
Philippa York was fourth in the Grand Prix de Wallonie.
31.
Philippa York won stage six from Santander to Lagos de Covadonga putting her into the leader's jersey.
32.
Philippa York finished second on the day to eventual winner of the race, Greg LeMond.
33.
Philippa York retained this to the end of stage seventeen between Gap and Serre Chevalier.
34.
However Philippa York was battling illness and began to spiral down the placings in a struggle just to stay in the race.
35.
Philippa York started stage twenty-one in fifteenth overall but climbed off her bike to abandon the race before the conical final climb of the day up the Puy-de-Dome.
36.
In other races, Philippa York finished second overall in the Tour de Suisse behind Andrew Hampsten.
37.
Philippa York was sixth in the Vuelta a Aragon and seventh in the Escalada a Montjuic.
38.
In 1987 Philippa York rode the Giro d'Italia for the only time in her career.
39.
Philippa York won stage 21 in a three-man breakaway with Roche and Marino Lejarreta.
40.
Philippa York finished nineteenth in the Tour de France, although at the end of stage fourteen from Pau to Luz Ardiden Philippa York again enjoyed her zenith in the race when she was fifth overall.
41.
However, Philippa York slipped to fifth, then sixth, before on stage nineteen she lost over fifteen minutes to slide out of contention.
42.
Philippa York was sixth in the Tour of the Mediterranean and seventh in the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme behind winner Vicent Belda.
43.
In 1988, Philippa York joined the French Fagor team as had Roche and Schepers.
44.
Philippa York returned to the Vuelta a Espana and finished sixth overall with Kelly winning.
45.
Philippa York led over each of the first two climbs from Blagnac.
46.
Philippa York finished in second on the day two seconds behind.
47.
The next day Philippa York was again riding at the front when leading over the second climb but cracked and finished twenty-one minutes behind.
48.
Philippa York was a stage winner in the Tour de Romandie and a runner-up in the Grand Prix de Wallonie to Thomas Wegmuller.
49.
Philippa York rode only one grand tour for the first time since 1984, and she had her best placing in the tour since the 1984 race.
50.
Philippa York won stage ten of the 1989 Tour de France from Cauterets to Superbagneres.
51.
Philippa York was first to the top of all four of that day's climbs scaling the Tourmalet, Aspin, and Peyresourde before the Superbagneres finish.
52.
Philippa York was placed eighth at this point and ended that year's tour in tenth.
53.
Gianetti took the sprint for the stage but Philippa York comfortably stayed in yellow for the rest of the race.
54.
Philippa York was in a stage six, two-person breakaway with Thierry Claveyrolat.
55.
Stage eight was an individual time trial and despite strong time trialists being in the peloton such as Roche and Toni Rominger, Philippa York took the overall title with Claveyrolat the runner up.
56.
Philippa York was runner up for a second time in the Tour de Suisse with Kelly the victor that year.
57.
Philippa York was a stage winner in the Tour de Romandie.
58.
Philippa York took fourth place in the Giro di Lombardia behind Gilles Delion.
59.
Philippa York though was denied the yellow cap award from the competition her team led from stage ten onwards.
60.
Philippa York won a stage in the 1991 Tour de Suisse and finished fifth overall.
61.
Philippa York was second in the debut edition of the Classique des Alpes, fourth in the Criterium du Dauphine Libere, fourth in the Tour of Britain and fifth in the Grand Prix of the Americas.
62.
Philippa York finished the Tour de France in seventy-second place, the only one of her eight finishes in the tour that was outside the top twenty-five.
63.
In 1992, Philippa York revealed her vegetarianism, which was an intention to improve her performance on the bike.
64.
Philippa York completed the Tour de France in 1992 and 1993, and the Vuelta in 1992 and 1993.
65.
However, soon afterwards, her French team Le Groupement went bust and Philippa York retired from racing.
66.
In 1997, Philippa York became the coach of the British national team, and in 1998 managed the Scottish team in the Tour of Britain, an eight-day round-Britain stage race.
67.
Philippa York worked in journalism, writing for several cycling magazines.
68.
In 2000, a tabloid news story reported that Philippa York, still known publicly as Robert Millar, was now living as a woman.
69.
The story hurt Philippa York, who reduced her connections with cycling, though still kept up some writing and appeared at the 2002 Commonwealth Games as Millar.
70.
In 2007, journalist Richard Moore wrote a biography of Philippa York titled In Search of Robert Millar.
71.
Philippa York partially returned to journalism in the 2010s, writing a blog for Cyclingnews and later writing occasionally for other publications including The Guardian.
72.
Philippa York remained a private figure, but following her announcement of her gender transition joined the ITV4 commentary team for the 2017 Tour de France.
73.
Philippa York has lost a lot of popularity, too, one has to say.
74.
Philippa York won't speak to journalists and the team itself [Panasonic] is becoming discontented with Robert this year.
75.
On 6 July 2017, in a statement on Cyclingnews, Philippa York confirmed her gender transition.
76.
Philippa York is the first former professional cyclist to have publicly transitioned.
77.
Philippa York is not related to David Millar, a fellow road cyclist from the west of Scotland whose main success came in the mid-2000s.