Dennis’s personal peak
Aussie rider secures title he has sought since a junior
ROHAN Dennis has finally won the only major time trial title lacking from his long list of victories, and he’s done so in style.
The Australian rider won gold at the road world championships on Wednesday, dominating the 52.5km race to beat last year’s winner Tom Dumoulin by a massive one minute, 21.09 seconds.
Victor Campenaerts, who won the European title in Glasgow last month, was 0.53 seconds behind in third.
“I can’t really explain it. It’s an amazing feeling,” said Den- nis, who has won time trials in all three Grand Tours, including one in the Giro d’Italia and two in the Vuelta this year.
Dennis had won gold in the team time trial with the BMC Racing Team in 2014 and 2015 but was still after his first individual world title.
“It’s a dream come true,” he said.
“I have been chasing this since I was a junior. I have never won it in any age group, so to win the first one in the seniors is very special.”
The course through the Austrian Alps was rather flat for the first 30km until a 5km climb from Fritzens to Gnadenwald with an average gradient of 7.1 per cent. Dennis was the fastest from the start. He already led Dumoulin by nearly nine seconds at the first split after 16.5km and built on his advantage in the steep second part of the course, where he increased his advantage to just more than a minute.
It was Drumoulin’s second silver at these worlds after his finish with Team Sunweb in Sunday’s team time trial, which was won by Quick Step. Dennis and Dumoulin were widely regarded as the gold favourites for the course through the Austrian Alps.
The Dutchman beat Dennis in the opening stage of the Giro but Dennis won a longer time trial later that event.
Dennis used the Vuelta as his preparation for the world championships.
Wednesday’s victory made him only the second Australian to claim the world time trial title after Michael Rogers won three straight from 2003 to 2005. The road races at the world championships take place this weekend.