Britain’s David Millar admitted the long cycling season had caught up with him after a “disappointing” time trial display at the world road race championships 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 US.
For most, Millar’s ninth place finish at 1 minute, 25 seconds behind Grabsch was commendable in the light of Australia’s Michael Rogers, a former three-time world champion, finishing 8 seconds behind.
For Millar, it wasn’t 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.”
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 erythropoietin (EPO). His victory went to Rogers, who won again in 2004 and 2005.
Then in 2006 Fabian Cancellara took over the mantle, defending it again last year. Cancellara decided not to go for a third straight win this year, citing fatigue.
But Millar, who rides for the Garmin team, believes the Swiss ace who boasts Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix titles among his 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,” the Scot said. “Everyone else seems to be a bit hit and miss.”
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, and that now 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,” he said.
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