The men's under 23 podium (l-r): Luke Durbridge (2nd), Rohan Dennis (1st), and Michael Matthews (3rd).(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Rohan Dennis from South Australia won the gold medal in the men's under 23 Time Trial Championship in Buninyong.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Ben Grieve-Johnson from Tasmania corners out of the home straight in Buninyong during the men's open time trial championship.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Eric Sheppard from Victoria in action during the men's open road time trial in Buninyong.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Alistair Loutit from the Australian Capital Territory leaves the main street of Buninyong in his ride against the clock.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Tasmanian Ben Grenda heads towards the climb out of Buninyong during his ride against the clock.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Nick Aitken from Victoria had a great domestic season in 2009 and will be a rider to watch in 2010.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Rohan Dennis corners out of the home straight in Buninyong on his way towards a gold medal in the men's under 23 Time Trial Championship.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Nathan Haas was the third last rider to leave the starting-gate in Buninyong for the men's open road time trial championship.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Luke Durbridge from Western Australia won a stage of the Tour of Tasmania in 2009 and rode into a silver medal at the men's under 23 time trial championship in Buninyong.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Rhys Gillett from Victoria gets low down on the bars looking for more speed as he approaches the finish in Buninyong.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Matthew Benson from South Australia heads into the home straight in Buninyong to finish his ride against the clock.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Charging towards the finish to the men's open time trial championship in Buninyong.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
Michael Freiberg from Western Australia in his ride against the clock in Buninyong.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
One of the early fancies Michael Matthews from the Australian Capital Territory made the podium in third spot for the men's under 23 time trial championship.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
2010 Men's Under 23 National Time Trial Champion Rohan Dennis from South Australia.(Image credit: Shane Goss)
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.
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"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.
