23-year old Rohan Dennis has to be considered as a one of neo-pros in professional peloton, who quickly seized the opportunity to play their own cards in World tour races and shown off undisputed potential. After a start to a 2013 season regarded as below average, partially due to an ilness, the Australian of Garmin – Sharp questioned his abilities to compete against best professional cyclist on a satisfying level, but finally managed to find his legs during the Tour de Romandie and has undergone a tremendous progress since then.

"The start of the season was pretty rough," he told Cyclingnews.

"At first I was questioning whether or not the sport was for me. After Tour Down Under, with my sickness, I wasn’t able to get on top of my health, and I couldn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel until around Romandie. It wasn’t until the Tour of California that I started to really find myself coming back into that confidence. Then obviously, it all started to fall into place at the Dauphine, and then at the Tour."

Only during his first season as a professional cyclist, Rohan Dennis achieved several doubtlessly respectable results in the likes of becoming one-day leader in the Criterium du Dauphine to finish the race in the top 10 and as a winner of the youth classification, as well as claiming an overall win in Tour of Alberta with a victory on stage 3 taken in a process.

"Alberta was a surprise, as I was only going there for a possible win in the prologue. I didn’t get that, but I thought I’d try and defend second place and on stage 3 everything changed. Everything seemed to happen without too much planning this year and I think that’s the best way to go heading into 2014."

What seems noticeable, the Australian cyclist established himself as a capable time trialist, while he has finished in a top 15 majority of his attempts against the clock this year, what includes taking a runner-up spot in National ITT Championships,  finishing 3rd in Amgen Tour California ITT, 2nd in Criterium du Dauphine where he held off a strong competition, and 12th in World Championships – ITT.

Although an unspectacular appearance during his Tour the France debut was followed by an early exit from the race at the first Pyrenean stage, the Garmin – Sharp cyclist reveals no disappointment on the subject. Dennis explains, that participation in la Grande Boucle in the Garmin – Sharp outfit was a spontaneous decision backed by his splendid results in the Criterium du Dauphine, while finishing the whole three-week race was never a part of an initial plan.

"I wasn’t meant to do a Grand Tour at all," he admitted to Cyclingnews.

"There were a few big races in my schedule, but they didn’t want to push me into anything too big. However Jonathan Vaughters said he believed I could handle the workload, and the team backed me."

However the schedule for an upcoming season is still to take its final shapes, the Australian reveals, that again the Santos Tour Down Under, the Tour of California and Tour of Alberta should become his main objectives for 2014. Still, Garmin – Sharp cyclist doesn’t rule out his another appearance at the Tour the France, this time with greater expectations in relation to the final overall standings.

"At the moment it’s a little bit unknown. We’ll have Slagter in the team so it’s only fair that he has the chance to go back to back. I’m not sure what his opinions are on that, but the team will back him if he’s willing to go for it. However I’m not going to rule myself out form wise. I’m still preparing myself as I am going there to win. So if Tom isn’t up to it or doesn’t want to target the race, then I’ll happily put my hand up but that’s still not 100 per cent certain yet."

"This year coming up the Tour is again a maybe. The team isn’t sometimes picked until a week to go so it’s up in the air but I’m one of around 14 guys down for a possible place. My name’s on that list."

"Next year I believe I can podium at the Tour of California. It’s a bit up in the air with the Dauphine though. This year an opportunity opened up because [Andrew] Talansky was sick. Next year that probably won’t happen again. I’ll target the race but my role in the team will depend on what Andrew is doing in the lead-up to the Tour. There’s also Ryder [Hesjedal] and Dan [Martin] to think of, too."

“Alberta, it would be great to go there again and try and win again. It will be leading into Worlds again and I’ll have that big block of altitude as well but basically I’ll try and mimic what I did this year and try and contribute to the team a bit more than this year.”

With his own words, the Australian also confirms what was said by other professionals last few weeks, about Garmin – Sharp team offering a great opportunities for young riders. Thus, Rohan Dennis remains optimistic about his future in cycling on World Tour level, not only as a splendid time trialist, but possible GC contender.

“Anything is possible. People talk about how it’s unnatural that some guys are riding so fast uphill but when I look at it, I’m a neo pro and on the last stage of the Dauphine, Froome and Porte put 30 seconds into me on a 10-kilometre climb. I know it wasn’t an overly steep climb but it was still around six per cent. It’s not out of the question that in two to four years that I can climb with them and be in contention with them.”