by Justin Davis

VARESE, Italy, Sept 25, 2008 (AFP) – Britain’s David Millar admitted the long cycling season had caught up with him here after a “disappointing” time trial display at the world road race championships here on Thursday.

German champion Bert Grabsch took full advantage of the absence of two-time defending champion Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland to win gold ahead of Canada’s Svein Tuft and David Zabriskie of the United States.

For most, Millar’s ninth place finish at 1min 25sec behind Grabsch was still commendable in the light of Australia’s Michael Rogers, a former three-time world champion, finishing 8secs further back. But for Millar, it was not acceptable.

“It started off good, but then I didn’t have it in the second half. It was just average … average me, which is very disappointing, because I was expecting a lot more. Not a good day at the office,” said Millar.

“I can’t explain it. I thought I’d done everything right. I’ve done a lot of work these last five weeks. But, then again, five weeks ago I thought it was mission impossible, so to even get to this point was something.

“Honestly, though, I expected a lot more.”

Millar famously won the world time trial crown at Hamilton, Canada in 2003
- only to infamously be stripped of the title after admitting to using the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin).

His victory went to Rogers, who won again in 2004 and 2005. Then in 2006 Fabian Cancellara took over the mantle, defending it again in 2007.

Cancellara decided not to go for a third straight win this year having cited fatigue after winning Olympic gold in Beijing.

But Millar, who rides for the Garmin team, believes the Swiss ace who boasts Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix titles among his impressive list of honors would have won gold had he been in attendance.

“It’s not easy to get it right for a single day. There seems to be only one guy who gets it right all the time, and that’s Cancellara,” added the Scot.

“Everyone else seems to be a bit hit and miss. It’s definitely been more miss for me of late … but, yeah, these seem to be quite unpredictable days.

“To be honest, though, I’ve put a lot of work into trying to make it predictable and, yet, I still seem to miss out.”

Millar said he was unsure if “using altitude training” between his last two races and doing a proper taper coming into the worlds had been costly.

But it took this performance to show him that, after racing the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the Olympics among other races, he is ready for a rest.

“If you’d asked me a few hours ago, I felt on top of it, but now all of a sudden, it feel as though I haven’t stopped since January, so maybe I’ve stretched myself a bit.

“I’m not feeling my age – I’m feeling the length of the season.”

Photo by: CorVos Pro