Brailsford: Morale played part in Dennis Giro d'Italia revelation

Team Ineos rider Australias Rohan Dennis R Team Ineos rider Great Britains Tao Geoghegan Hart C and Team Sunweb Australians rider Jai Hindley L lead the race uphill at Passo dello Stelvio Stelvio Pass during the 18th stage of the Giro dItalia 2020 cycling race a 207kilometer route between Pinzolo and Laghi di Cancano on October 22 2020 Photo by Luca Bettini AFP Photo by LUCA BETTINIAFP via Getty Images
Rohan Dennis leads Tao Geoghegan Hart up the Passo dello Stelvio (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)

Dave Brailsford has suggested the key to Rohan Dennis’ success at Ineos Grenadiers is down to him feeling 'happy and supported', drawing a comparison with Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma), who recently announced he's taking a break from the sport. 

The Ineos boss described Dennis' performance at last year's Giro d'Italia, where he guided Tao Geoghegan Hart to a dramatic overall victory, as "a revelation to a lot of people”. It was the Australian's first year on the team after a bitter fall-out with his old team Bahrain McLaren, which contributed to significant mental health issues, as he later revealed. 

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Patrick Fletcher

Patrick is an NCTJ-trained journalist, and former deputy editor of Cyclingnews, who has seven years’ experience covering professional cycling. He has a modern languages degree from Durham University and has been able to put it to some use in what is a multi-lingual sport, with a particular focus on French and Spanish-speaking riders. Away from cycling, Patrick spends most of his time playing or watching other forms of sport - football, tennis, trail running, darts, to name a few, but he draws the line at rugby.