Grivko concedes victory to Millar at De Panne

Andry Grivko was unable to hold off a dominant David Millar (Garmin-Transitions) in the final individual time trial at The Three Days of De Panne, but was able to take some consolation in his second place finish overall in the four-stage race.

Grivko started his time trial two minutes behind Millar, with only twelve seconds separating the two riders in the general classification. But by the time Grivko had passed the course's one and only check point, his advantage over Millar had swung around to a 24 second deficit. He eventually finished 47 seconds down on Millar, to end the race 35 seconds behind the Scot's overall time.

Grivko conceded that he may have dug a little too far into his reserves when he formed part of a day-long breakaway group on Wednesday's stage two.

"I think I took it a little bit too hard yesterday," Grivko told Cyclingnews after stepping down from the De Panne podium. "My legs were good, but not perfect for the fight today with Millar."

Despite giving up time to Millar, Grivko was able to move away from the race leader at the start of the time trial, Luca Paolini (Acqua & Sapone). The two started the final stage on exactly the same cumulative time, but the Ukrainian time trial champion completed his loop of the 14.5 kilometre loop 32 seconds faster than the Italian to separate them for the first time since Wednesday afternoon.

Although disappointed to have slipped away from first place, Grivko didn't leave the race empty handed, collecting the intermediate sprints competition before joining Millar and third placed Paolini for the final podium.

"Yeah, I feel good [to have come away with something]," he said. "Okay, I took a good place and was able to make the podium."