Eneco Tour: Dennis wins stage 2 time trial

Image 1 of 46

Rohan Dennis (BMC) won the 9.6km time trial stage at the Eneco Tour and took the race leader’s white jersey after a dominant ride in against the clock in Breda in the Netherlands.

The Australian national time trial and former Hour Record holder went off early and set a time of 10:48 for the flat course. Jos Van Emden (LottoNL-Jumbo) finished second at five seconds back, with Jasha Sütterlin (Movistar) third at 14 seconds but the rest of the field failed to dislodge Dennis from the hot seat at the finish area. Both Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) and Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) were off the pace, finishing 20 seconds slower than Dennis.

Taylor Phinney (BMC) showed some form by finishing seventh fastest at 16 seconds; with British national champion Alex Dowsett (Movistar) tenth at 18 seconds.

Dennis leads Van Emden in the overall classification, with the Dutchman at five seconds. Peter Sagan is third overall at 13 seconds after setting a time of 11:05 for the time trial and thanks to the time bonus he took for finishing second on Monday’s opening road race stage. Stage winner Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) was off the pace in the time trial, finishing 85th.

Dennis is now a contender for overall success thanks to BMC’s expected strength in the key team time trial on stage 5.

"From what I saw from my side, it was close to perfection in a time trial. I took all the risks and kind of crossed my fingers every time I went through a corner. But it worked out. Today was as quick as I could possibly go," Dennis said with pride after his strong ride.

"It's great to win the stage and even better to take the lead. It's going to put pressure on the team to perform every day but we're here to win with either myself or Greg (Van Avermaet). The team time trial will be another big day for the GC. So it's just about making sure we all stay up front and don't lose time each day. I think the Limburg stage and the final stage are also big concern for the GC."

Watch out for Sagan 

Dennis pointed to Sagan as his biggest rival. "It's got to be Peter," he said with respect. "Today I was worried about him once Tom Dumoulin and Tony Martin had gone through. He was the main guy that stressed me out."

Sagan made a rare appearance in the standard Tinkoff colours and not his road race world champion's rainbow jersey. He gave it everything in the short time trial but stopped the clock in 11:05 to secure eighth place, amongst the many sprinters in the race. With time bonuses of ten, six and four seconds on offer at stage finishes and a maximum of nine seconds up for grabs on each of the Golden Kilometre sprint points, Sagan knows he is within reach of Dennis and the race lead but is cautious of the 20.9km team time trial on sage 5 in Sittard-Geleen.

"The general classification will come down to seconds, I think," Sagan predicted.

"Today I'm happy that I did a great time trial but there is still a long way to go until Sunday. There are a lot of stages and how we do the team time trial will be very important. We will see because then there are still dangerous stages where there could be crashes or a lot of wind. I think we will see what will happen better after the team time trial. I'm very happy with everything that I have done this season and I am here to make more fun."

Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky) is the current world time trial champion and so raced in the rainbow stripes today. However he had an embarrassing ride when he started 45 seconds later than scheduled. That meant he started just 15 seconds ahead of his minute-man Dennis, and the Australian caught and past him before the finish.

Dylan van Baarle (Cannondale-Drapac) also had a slightly late start, while Erik Baska (Tinkoff) made it on to the start ramp and got his bike just in time for his start time.

Wednesday's 186km third stage is on a circuit around Blankenberge and Ardooie in Belgium and is expected to see the sprinters and their lead-out trains return to the forefront. 

Full Results