Rohan Dennis keeps Australian Time Trial title
Jan 05 2017 08:48 pm CET
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS FEEDSRohan Dennis has successfully defended his title as the Australian Team Trial champion. This is the third year in a row that the BMC Racing Team rider stands on the podium of this event.
As defending champion, Dennis was the last rider to hit the road in the competition and although things looked difficult at the first check point when he was three seconds slower than Luke Durbridge, he achieved a final margin of 58 seconds over the Orica-Scott rider.
During the weekend, the BMC rider was not feeling well but at the end his performance of the day was outstanding. "Two weeks ago I was fairly confident and then on New Year's Day I was really confident but then that night I came down with something.
"This gave me a bit of doubt as I didn't know how I was going to go. A lot of it was severe hay fever symptoms and I think it was more than that, but I woke up this morning and I was feeling a lot better. So I just hoped that it would all come together today," the rider said in a post-race interview.
This victory gives the Australian a good start for the season and he now has his eyes set on what is next, helping Richie Porte get the victory in the Tour Down Under. "I can take a lot of positives from today. I'm lighter than last year and basically put out the same power. I haven't done a lot of time trial-specific training for the nationals so that's a huge bonus. We're moving towards going for GC so I still have to be good in time trials, so obviously I haven't neglected that.
"There's bigger goals than the Santos Tour Down Under but I'd like to be up around the mark in Adelaide and we're there for Richie so I can be there to help him get the win."
The Women's Time Trial Championship also took place on Thursday and 2016 bronze medal winner Katrin Garfoot of Orica-Scott now stepped on the top spot of the podium after beating Shara Gillow and Kate Perry.
