The Tour Down Under has been a cornerstone of Rohan Dennis’ career. It’s where in 2012 he delivered a performance that helped catapult him to the WorldTour, it’s where he secured his first stage and overall victories in that top tier and it's now where he will line up on Tuesday at the prologue with his eyes once again firmly set on the overall podium.
The South Australian rider first competed at his home race in 2010, then again two years later when his fifth place on the GC and first place in the youth and mountains classification brought WorldTour teams knocking.
Since 2014, Dennis hasn’t once missed an edition, not even when it was off the international calendar because of the COVID-19 pandemic and run as a domestic event instead in 2021 and 2022. There is no place like home, it seems, for the 32-year-old.
"I’m always happy to put my hand up,” said Dennis of his regular appearances at the Australian WorldTour stage race. “I always regret it around about November or December, not because I don't like the race but because it puts pressure on me to be good from day dot."
The draw, however, is clear as he just keeps coming back. “There is nothing like Adelaide I guess, for me."
Dennis’ triumphed in the race in 2015, standing on the top podium step flanked by Richie Porte and Cadel Evans and it's a victory that can't soon be forgotten as we sit in race headquarters at the Adelaide Hilton, where entering the lobby the names of past winners are affixed to the front face of the entry steps and a huge poster of Dennis in the ochre jersey is prominently placed on a pillar.
Dennis has also finished in the top 6 on GC on four other occasions, with his most recent result in the WorldTour race a fourth overall. This year at least one place better is the aim.
"I don't know how possible it will be to actually win. You never know until really a couple of days in when you get a bit of a test," Dennis told Cyclingnews, pointing to the late climb in stage two to Victor Harbour in stage 2 as "a good feeler" of where everyone is and then and then Corkscrew on stage 3 will "show a lot".
"I'm hoping what I've done work-wise will be good enough to be on the podium," he said. "It's been a long old stint since I was able to get on the podium … But maybe with the prologue, it gives me a bit of an edge."
Power of the prologue
The reason the 2018 and 2019 World time trial title winner is not surprisingly circumspect about how much of an edge that first day of racing in the WorldTour event will deliver is that the prologue is just 5.5km long, and with no time trial bikes allowed.
“It's a bit of an unknown,” said the rider from Adelaide of racing against the clock on a road bike. “A lot of us don't really do TT's on road bikes. The aerodynamics aspect of it is almost thrown out of the window in some sense because some guys are really good with power in the aero position, whereas other guys are not. That brings it more back to an even playing field, I think, which is not the ideal situation for me."
“Still there's an element of power talks and we've worked hard on trying to maximise that in the road position.”
That focussed approach to the Tour Down Under was part of the reason Dennis opted to skip defending his Australian time trial title on the 37.5km Ballarat course earlier this month.
“Training has been a lot different this year to other years, just purely because I don't have to be good over a 45-minute sustained effort," said Dennis. "It's one-off, it's high intensity 3- to 10-minute efforts more or less and being able to back it up multiple times during the day.”
With his tailored training Dennis is hoping Tuesday's prologue will be his opportunity to get the advantage in the race over climbers like Simon Yates (Team Jayco AlUla) and Jai Hindley (Bora Hansgrohe) and then hold it, or at least enough of it, through till the end.
“I'm hoping they go really bad on Tuesday," Dennis said with a chuckle, the light jocularity sneaking through into the interview on a number of occasions despite the building race pressure.
"But guys like Jai and Yates have still got that kick, that high-intensity punch, which is damaging … they still can kick and hurt their opponents but it's not suited specifically for them. I believe that someone more along the lines of Ethan Hayter, Daryl Impey or Michael Matthews will be a much bigger threat – and I should also probably add Bevin – due to the fact that they are fast finishers and can get over those shorter, harder climbs, which is very difficult, and can go quite well in short prologues and TT's."
The inclusion of the prologue isn't all that's changed in the racing dynamic. There is of course no Richie Porte, who with his dominance of the climb of Willunga has helped him secure first on the overall twice and second four times.
On top of that new race director Stuart O'Grady has stamped his own mark on the long running event, switching up the course and this year that means that as well as the now retired Porte being missing, so is the Willunga climb that he and the Tour Down Under had become so closely associated with. Instead there will be other ascending challenges throughout, such as the shorter Corkscrew and Mount Lofty in the Adelaide hills, which provides the finale for the six day event.
“It's more of an open race this year,” said Dennis.
And that is something the rider from Adelaide clearly plans to take advantage of.
