Cycling: Millar fails to find top gear on time trial circuit

Hopes that David Millar could return to the podium in the World Time Trial Championship fell less than 20 seconds short of becoming reality here yesterday.

One of the favourites for the flat 40-kilometre course finishing on the Zolder motor racing circuit, the Scot failed to find his customary top gear for time trial events and was forced to settle for sixth place.

Victory went to Santiago Botero, the blonde Colombian powerhouse who inflicted a rare defeat on Lance Armstrong in a Tour de France time-trial stage this July, with the German Michael Rich second and Spain's Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano third.

Eighteen seconds slower than Gonzalez de Galdeano yesterday, Millar had taken silver in the world time trial last year behind Jan Ullrich, but yesterday he said: "It just wasn't happening. I was going balls to the wall from the start, but I didn't have it."

On a course which began on a dual carriageway and then continued on a series of broad Belgian highways before reaching Zolder, the Cofidis rider was in his element, even if the intermediate time checks suggested his chances of a top-three spot were slim. However, on the final section on the former Formula One circuit, Millar came close to crashing three times, skidding through the sand on one chicane and then running out of tarmac on a right-hand bend.

"I'm not disappointed, I did what I could," Millar, who remained upright, said afterwards. The head coach, John Herety, added: "It's possible that his recent abandon in the Tour of Spain didn't help matters. A week's extra racing might have given him that little bit extra he needed."

The 25-year-old says he is now looking forward to Sunday's 250km road race, when he will be one of just two British professionals taking part.

Alasdair Fotheringham writes for Cycling Weekly