Belgium’s Campenaerts claims bronze medal

INNSBRUCK, Austria, Sept 26, (AFP): Rohan Dennis beat favourite and defending champion Tom Dumoulin at the world championships individual time trial on Wednesday, the Australian lifting his bike aloft in triumph at the finish line.

Dennis completed the 52.1km course in 1hr 03min and 02sec with Dutchman Dumoulin 1min 21sec behind in a race widely billed as a duel between the two. The bronze medal went to Victor Campenaerts, of Belgium, who was just a fraction of a second adrift of the silver medal.

Dennis, who has won time trials and worn the leader’s jersey at all three Grand Tours, said earning the right to wear the world champion rainbow jersey for a year was a dream come true.

“I have been targeting this since I was a junior and it’s absolutely amazing, a dream come true,” he said.

“I wanted to make some kind of salute on the finish line but I wasn’t sure even though everyone was telling me I’d

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won, I wanted it to be completely sure,” he said of the wait for Dumoulin to cross the line.

But he also said he knew he had a good chance from 20km out.

“At the hill, Brad McGee was coaching me,” said Dennis of the tough 5km climb at the 30km mark which was his major challenge.

“He was mainly trying to keep me calm because I was so nervous about the climb,” he admitted of the coaching he got from former professional McGee over the team radio from the car behind him.

“And as soon as I got to the top I knew I could get a time at the very least as fast as he (Dumoulin) did.

“I’m not that surprised because I knew he had pushed hard in the team time-trial by riding a lot at the front,” said the BMC rider.

Adelaide native Dennis, a former holder of the hour record, has won the Australian national individual time trial championship for the past three years.

Dumoulin, who won the Giro d’Italia in 2017 before claiming worlds time trial victory for the first time, looked ashen at the finish, but was smiling again by the time he got to the podium and warmly congratulated the winner.

The 27-year-old Dutchman has now finished runner-up in three major events this season having also finished second to Sky’s Chris Froome at the Giro and to another Briton, Sky’s Geraint Thomas, at the Tour de France.

English rugby bosses look set to oppose any attempt to tear up the game’s newly-agreed global calendar at a meeting of the World Rugby Council in Australia this week, the Guardian has reported.

The new calendar, agreed last year, will start in 2020 and see the June test window move to the first three weeks of July, while matches between top and second-tier nations will increase by a minimum of a 39 percent in the period up to 2032.

World Rugby said it is “examining models” for the annual Test windows from 2020 on Wednesday, signalling a potential shake-up following reports of a new world league for national teams.

The world body is looking at “ways to inject further significance and excitement into the July and November windows and optimise the commercial model for all”, a statement said.

The credibility of Australia’s National Rugby League has been called into question in the leadup to the season-ending Grand Final after Melbourne Storm fullback Billy Slater was acquitted of a shoulder charge and cleared to play in the title-decider.

Retiring Slater, one of the NRL’s most decorated players, was cited for barging Cronulla’s Sosaia Feki into touch in Friday’s playoff in Melbourne, endangering his hopes of a fairytale swansong against the Sydney Roosters on Sunday.