The Scot had been tipped to win the event over a testing course in Zolder, Belgium.

But he admitted after his disappointing sixth place he was just happy to finish after encountering problems with his vision.

Millar, who was riding without his glasses, almost crashed as he cut across the gravel on one of the tight chicanes.

"It was very windy and I was all over the place. I didn't wear my glasses - I never do when I'm racing - so I couldn't see very well.

"I didn't see the gravel trap and I didn't know the final part of the course because I couldn't go on it yesterday during training."

Millar has been unable to train properly since last month's Tour of Spain because of injuries he suffered there in two falls.

"I didn't ride my bike for 10 days and so I wasn't on form," he said.

"I spent the whole race with a voice in my head telling me 'this is not good'. My legs were going round but my muscles weren't working."

Millar, silver-medallist in last year's time-trial, finished 35.32 seconds behind Colombian Santiago Botero's winning time of 48 minutes 08.45 seconds.