Garmin has entrusted the leadership for next month’s Tour Down Under to Rohan Dennis.

The decision came after the announcement that last year’s winner, Tom Slagter, would not attend the Australian race due to the upcoming birth of his first child.

"Tom will not be going because his wife is due to give birth towards the end of January," Garmin boss Jonathan Vaughters told Cyclingnews.

"Rohan really wants to try and win it and he's from Adelaide. I think he can win the race and this way we have one leader."

Dennis, the 2012 under-23 Australian road and time-trial national champion, comes from a track cycling background and has the world-championship medals to show for it. Finishing fifth overall in the 2012 Tour Down Under illustrated his potential for success in the Australian race. This season he collected the overall prize in the Tour of Alberta, and reaffirmed that he is ready for more responsibility.

Already last month the young Aussie revealed his ambitions.

“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,” he then said to Cyclingnews.

He also stated that he hoped he could make Garmin’s Tour team, and believed that he could do well in the American races.

"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.”

The combination of the time trialing skills, and his ability to stick with the best in the high mountains, will serve Rohan Dennis well, and he will surely be one of the riders we will see among the best in the coming years.

Finally, has anyone made the Rohan rider analogy yet? (hint: Tolkien)