By Bryn Palmer, Sydney

A resigned Chris Boardman signed off an illustrious Olympics career with a respectable 11th place in Saturday's men's time trial and then insisted: "It's a good job I'm retiring in four weeks' time."

The 1992 Barcelona gold medallist and bronze medallist from Atlanta completed the three laps of the 15.6km course in 59.32 minutes, nearly two minutes outside surprise winner, Russian Viacheslav Ekimov.

Boardman, 32, who will retire from competition after the world championships and a new attempt on the world hour record on October 27, revealed earlier this week he has been suffering from the bone-wasting disease osteopenia for the past two years.

And after scaling the heights earlier in his career, he admitted his performance here had confirmed what he has known for sometime about the debilitating effects of the disease on his cycling.

"It's getting harder and harder to perform at this level and I seem to be more and more fragile," he said.

"It has been a bit of a do or die effort in the last few weeks to do the volume of training to create the form to be competitive, and my body is just not recovering from it.

"I did all I could but it just wasn't there. I just couldn't get over the training. I am OK and it is roughly respectable, but it is difficult to take when you have won events like this to be an also-ran.

"But I suppose it happens to everybody - it is a good job I am retiring in four weeks time!"

The man who expected to follow in Boardman's footsteps, exiled Scot David Millar, fared little better and could only manage 16th place in 1:00:17.

Millar, 23, who shot to prominence in July when he won the opening time trial of the Tour de France - only the fourth British rider to achieve the feat - and went on to finish the Tour confirmed his pre-race fears about the effect of his exertions there on his Sydney effort.

"I am not on top form but at least I finished it - I survived," he said.

"After the first lap I was thinking 'another two laps to go, that's a bit long.'

"I thought I was going to die. But halfway through the second lap I felt better and decided to enjoy it after that."

Ekimov, a gold medallist in Seoul 12 years ago but a current team-mate of two-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, blitzed the 46.8 kilometres in 57.40.

The 34-year-old Russian edged out Germany's Jan Ullrich - the gold medallist in the road race - into silver with 57.48, with American hero Armstrong having to settle for bronze in 58.14.

Meanwhile Ceris Gilfillan set the pace for the world's leading cyclists in the women's time trial but finished 14th overall.

The 20-year-old from Malvern was drawn first of the 24 competitors and covered the two laps of the 15.6km course in 44.29 minutes, a time none of the next six riders could match.

Gilfillan was still holding on to third place after the first group of 12 riders, before the big names took over and relegated her to 14th behind Holland's Leontien Zijlaard, who claimed her third gold medal of the Games.

Britain's individual pursuit bronze medallist Yvonne McGregor was a further three places back in 17th with a time of 44.37.

Mari Holden, of the USA, claimed silver in 42.37, with France's Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli taking bronze in 42.52.