After several near-misses, Rohan Dennis (BMC) finally achieved one of his career goals when he claimed his first Australian TT Championships win in commanding fashion. On the hilly 40.9km course in Buninyoung, he beat new teammate Richie Porte by 39 seconds in a BMC 1-2 while Sean Lake (Avanti) was a hugely surprising bronze medallist.

A few years ago Rohan Dennis firmly established himself as the leading Australian time triallist and in 2015 he went on to move into the elite at the world level too, most notably with his win in the opening stage of the Tour de France. For some reason, however, he has never worn the gold-and-green jersey of national champion at the elite level and he has done nothing to hide that it was a big goal of his to get that monkey off his back.

In 2013, Dennis had to settle for second and in 2014 he was blown off his bike by a sudden gust of wind. Last year he seemed to be on track for a win as he had the fastest time at the midpoint but he faded in the headwind on the way back and had to settle for second behind Richie Porte.

Today things finally came together for Dennis who got his revenge over Porte in the 2016 edition of the event. On the exact same course that he had tackled badly 12 months ago, he was clearly the strongest, putting 39 seconds into the defending champion who is now his teammate.

As the reigning gold and silver medallists, the BMC pair were the final two riders down the ramp and it became apparent that Dennis would have the upper hand. Last year’s bronze medallist Jack Bobridge had a fast start in his first race for Trek-Segafredo and had the fastest time at the first time check when Dennis improved the mark. Porte could only manage third at that point.

From there, Dennis continued to increase his advantage and he didn’t repeat last year’s mistake. Porte gauged his effort well and never cracked but he consistently lost time to Dennis who held his pace all the way to the line to claim the win. Porte was the only rider inside one minute of the new champion, losing 39 seconds to his teammate.

Bobridge had gone out way too fast and exploded completely on the way back. Instead, the battle for bronze came down to a duel between Damien Howson (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Sean Lake who had been an early starter and posted a surprisingly good time. After a long day in the hot seat, he could watch while Bobridge and Howson both missed his mark and the former rower claimed a surprise third place, 1.35 behind Dennis. Howson had to settle for fourth.

Attention now turns to the road race which will be held on Sunday. Dennis and Porte will be the only BMC riders in the race and face strong opposition from nine Orica-GreenEDGE riders that are led by Simon Gerrans and an in-form Caleb Ewan.

An unchanged course

The Australian TT Championships kicked off the 2016 season and the riders were greeted with sunny conditions and 23-degree temperatures, making it a perfect day for a bike race. The course was the same 40.9km route that had been used for last year’s event and saw the riders travel south of the city along undulating roads that included a tough climb on the way back. Unlike last year, however, they had a tailwind after they had turned around and faced the hardest part of the course.

The first rider down the ramp was Peter Dunlop but it would be the third rider, Matthew Clark, who was the first rider to reach the finish. Stopping the clock in 54.32, he had passed both Dunlop and Jeremy Cameron along the way and he would firmly move into the hot seat.

Rhys Gillett turned out to be his first big rival as the Victorian was just 36 seconds behind and moved into second. Nathan Elliott had been caught by his one-minute man but did well to slot into third by limiting his losses after the catch.

Matt Burton slotted into fourth but most had their eyes on Jonathan Clarke who was the first pro rider to hit the course. However, the Unitedhealthcare rider was far off the pace and his time of 55.49 was only good enough for provisional third place. Drapac’s Timothy Roe didn’t do any better as he was 2 seconds slower than Clarke.

At this point, it was already known that Lake was posting some very good times out on the course and he managed to maintain the speed all the way to the finish. He stopped the clock in 52.48 which was a massive 1.44 faster than Clark and ensured that he would stay in the hot seat for almost the entire remaining part of the race.

Nicholas Suillari was in contention for a provisional spot on the podium but his time of 55.25 was ultimately only enough for provisional fourth place. The expectations were bigger for Drapac specialist Jordan Kerby but he suffered on the hilly course and had to settle for 8th.

Brodie Talbot slotted into the top 5 with a time of 55.39 while Craig Evers had a disappointing ride that saw him miss out on the top 10. Nick Bensley did much better as he became the third rider below 55 minutes when he slotted into second, 8 seconds ahead of Clark.

Bensley was quickly pushed into third by Ben Dyball who was just 22 seconds slower than Lake but everybody had their eyes on the four WorldTour riders who were the final starters. Surprisingly, Howson could only manage second as he was 17 seconds slower than Lake and Bobridge ended the race really badly, crossing the line in 8th place.

That left just the BMC pair of Dennis and Porte out on the course and it was already apparent that they would occupy the top two positions. Dennis was first to reach the finish in 51.13 before Porte came up short in his title defence with a  time of 51.52.