<div><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>"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.</p><p>"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.</p><p>"Honestly, though, I expected a lot more."</p><p>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).</p><p>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.</p><p>Cancellara decided not to go for a third straight win this year having cited fatigue after winning Olympic gold in Beijing.</p><p>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 honours would have won gold had he been in attendance.</p><p>"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.</p><p>"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.</p><p>"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."</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>"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.</p><p>"I'm not feeling my age - I'm feeling the length of the season."</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=33574681&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

Copyright 2008  <a href="http://www.afp.com/english/links/?pid=copyright">AFP Global Edition</a></div></div>