Thomas Löfkvist put a disappointing start behind him with a solid time trial showing on the final stage of the Critérium International.

The Swede had struggled on Saturday after travel disruptions severely delayed his arrival into Corsica, but produced a strong performance to help Russell Downing to victory on Sunday morning's second stage, and was the fastest Team Sky rider in the afternoon after battling his way around the 7.7km course in 10 minutes 14 seconds to claim 22nd place.

That time was 25 seconds adrift of David Millar (Garmin), who ended the day two seconds ahead of Astana's Alberto Contador.

Despite finishing the time trial 17 seconds behind Millar, Bbox rider Pierrick Fédrigo hung on for the overall victory with Michael Rogers (HTC-Columbia) and Tiago Machado (RadioShack) in second and third places respectively.

Yates backs Löfkvist effort

After the stage sports director Sean Yates praised Löfkvist's efforts and backed the Swede to be back to his best in time for his next race at the Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco next month.

"Thomas worked really hard this morning in support of Russell and tried his hardest out there this afternoon. That performance in the time trial was better than at the Ruta del Sol, and also in his training runs.

"Thomas has not been in top form this weekend though, what with his travel disruptions and all, and I think today it would have been a different kettle of fish if he'd been able to get here OK and been in contention for the GC.

"It's not the end of the world though and I'm sure he'll want to improve next time around."