Anyone in doubt of the Australian Institute of Sport's (AIS) effectiveness would surely have been silenced as Rohan Dennis led the Jayco Skins outfit to a clean sweep of all three Under-23 time trial medals at the Australian National Championships today in Buninyong, Victoria.
It's the third consecutive time the squad, part of the AIS's cycling development programme, has filled the podium and its fourth overall victory in as many years.
Dennis outpaced favoured teammates Luke Durbridge and Michael Matthews to claim the title. It's Matthews' second consecutive bronze medal at the event after finishing behind Jack Bobridge and Travis Meyer in previous years.
"I'm just really happy," said Dennis. "I've worked for most of the year [for this] and the hard work has paid off."
"I went out a little bit too hard up the hill from what I thought I should have done," he added. "I was hurting pretty bad three quarters of the way through. In the last five kilometres I just gave it everything."
Durbridge finished 10 seconds behind Dennis, with Matthews a further 12 seconds behind. The trio will enter Saturday's Under-23 road race amongst the favourites.
"It was good," said Durbridge. "This was the event I wanted to focus on. I just had two weeks over Christmas where I solely did time trial work and stuff like that. To do a quick time, I'm really happy.
"It was my first time around this circuit, so it can only get better from here," he added. "I'm really happy with second; it was a great ride by Rohan."
After finishing fifth in last year's race Nathan Haas moved up one position to take fourth.
Results
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rohan Dennis (SA) | 0:36:13 |
| 2 | Luke Durbridge (WA) | 0:00:10 |
| 3 | Michael Matthews (ACT) | 0:01:22 |
| 4 | Nathan Haas (MTB) | 0:01:42 |
| 5 | Adam Phelan (ACT) | 0:01:51 |
| 6 | Michael Freiberg (WA) | 0:02:03 |
| 7 | Nick Aitken (VIC) | Row 6 - Cell 2 |
| 8 | Benjamin King (WA) | 0:02:15 |
| 9 | Ben Grenda (TAS) | 0:02:31 |
| 10 | Alastair Loutit (ACT) | 0:02:32 |
| 11 | Mitchell Mulhern (QLD) | Row 10 - Cell 2 |
| 12 | Ben Dyball (NSW) | 0:02:39 |
| 13 | Sam Genge (ACT) | 0:03:01 |
| 14 | Rhys Gillett (VIC) | 0:03:11 |
| 15 | Eric Sheppard (VIC) | 0:03:40 |
| 16 | Timothy White (VIC) | 0:03:47 |
| 17 | Brodie Talbot (NSW) | 0:03:58 |
| 18 | Matthew Benson (SA) | 0:04:28 |
| 19 | Ben Grieve-Johnson (TAS) | 0:04:29 |
| 20 | Nathan Elliott (VIC) | 0:04:30 |
| 21 | Kevin Harnett (SA) | 0:04:57 |
| 22 | Sam Davis (WA) | 0:05:14 |
| 23 | Owen Cooke (NSW) | 0:05:27 |
| 24 | Ben Cutajar (QLD) | 0:05:34 |
| 25 | Lachlan Stewart (VIC) | 0:06:04 |
| 26 | Merlin Spranz (SA) | 0:06:28 |
| 27 | Daniel Hopper (VIC) | 0:06:29 |
| 28 | Ruan Benson (QLD) | 0:06:50 |
| 29 | Lachlan Ambrose (SA) | 0:07:12 |
| 30 | David Hampton (NSW) | 0:07:20 |
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