Tour de Suisse: Rohan Dennis wins opening time trial

Image 1 of 12

Rohan Dennis (Bahrain-Merida) won stage 1 of the Tour de Suisse, a 9.5km time trial in Langnau im Emmental. The time trial world champion edged out Maciej Bodnar (Bora-Hansgrohe) by fractions of a second to take his first victory in the rainbow stripes. Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) took third, two seconds down.

Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) put in a strong ride as the final preparation race for his Tour de France defence got under way. The Welshman was the fastest of the GC men, putting in a time of 11:07. Teammate Egan Bernal, probably Thomas’ greatest rival in the coming week, finished six seconds further back.

Elsewhere, Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) put in a solid ride to kick off his first stage race since iliac artery surgery. The Italian’s time of 11:20 saw him finish inside the top 40.

“I’m pretty happy it’s been a long time between wins, since sept last year so to get that monkey off my back is a good feeling,” said Dennis after the stage. “It installs a little bit more confidence in my ability to win no matter what equipment I’m on.

“It’s not the equipment that has caused me not to win over the last six months [since my move to Bahrain] and I proved that today. It’s really a step forward and we’re only going in one direction from here.”

“I hope so [that there’s more to come]. There’s still the rest of the week and the time trial later in the week is a goal of mine. And then there’s the Tour de France. I’m looking forward to it.”

How it unfolded

The opening stage of the Tour de Suisse was a standard affair – a flat 9.5km out and back time trial, starting and finishing in Langnau im Emmental. Weather was good on the day, with storms forecast late on.

Patrick Bevin (CCC Team) set the pace early on, putting in a strong effort at 10:58, though Bodnar ensured his time in the hot seat was short, with the Polish TT champion going eight seconds faster.

A host of other powerful time trialists also started in the early stages of the day, with world champion Dennis, Tom Bohli (UAE Team Emirates) and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) among the favourites to take the stage victory.

Dennis edged Bodnar by fractions of a second, while Kung went out too fast, fading from being five seconds up at the checkpoint to finishing eight seconds down on Dennis at the finish.

Matthews and Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) put in strong rides to place themselves among the specialists. Both riders covered the course in 10:52. Matthews’ teammate Soren Kragh Andersen would later join them at 10:52, just sneaking ahead of Asgreen in the standings.

Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) put in a good ride, going out fast before finishing with a time of 11:07, cementing himself as the top GC rider after stage 1. After Thomas, riders came and went, not threatening the top of the leaderboard, though Egan Bernal put in a strong ride to finish in 11:13.

Former Belgian time trial champion Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck-QuickStep) went out fast, going third at the checkpoint, but was another man to fade in the second half, and falling 18 seconds away from Dennis. Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) did the same, ending up 20 seconds down.

As the final 40 riders started their rides, the rain duly came, falling on the opening/closing kilometres of the stage. The rain only got heavier as time went on, reducing their slim victory chances of the late starters to zero.

As last man on the start list, Michael Mørkøv (Astana) finished his ride, finally – after almost two hours in the hotseat – Dennis could celebrate his first win of 2019 properly.

The Cyclingnews podcast is brought to you in association with Sportful, Pinarello and Floyds of Leadville. To subscribe to the Cyclingnews podcast, click here.

Full Results