George Hincapie was among the riders who were expecting more in Saturday’s time trial, finishing 2:42 off the pace set by Gontchar.

“I was disappointed with my performance. I thought I’d do better, but that was not the case. I felt dehydrated and I ran out of fuel. Maybe I ate too soon,” Hincapie said. “It was definitely not a normal performance for me.”

Hincapie said he just couldn’t find his rhythm on the rolling 52km course, but said all is not lost. Most riders are using Floyd Landis as the Tour reference point and in that measure, Hincapie is 1:30 behind his former teammate.

“We just have to see and hope I can recover. It was just a bad day for the team. It’s important to not lose sight of our goals,” Hincapie continued. “I hope I can recover and then have a good rest day tomorrow and I can be back to normal for the mountain stages.”

His teammates weren’t smiling in St. Méen-le-Grand, including Yaroslav Popovych, who described his ride as “bad.”

Discovery Channel was forced to take a reassessment in the wake of Saturday’s less-than-expected results. The team started the time trial with two riders in the top 10, but after the dust settled, Paolo Savoldelli is now the best-placed in 13th at 2:10 back. with Hincapie in 17th at 2:30.

“It doesn’t have an explanation. The team is disappointed, but everything is not lost. We lost some options, but the hope of making a great Tour continues,” said Discovery team boss Johan Bruyneel before Sunday’s start. “Now we have to go on the attack in the mountains.”