Rohan Dennis is smiling as he sits in the lobby of his hotel in Singapore. He’s here for the Tour de France Prudential Singapore Criterium alongside his wife who he plans to sightsee with before he heads back to Europe in a few days time. It’s an opportunity to relax after what has been an up and down season for Dennis who has had his struggles with illness, catching Covid-19 in June and suffering from severe gastrointestinal problems at the Commonwealth Games.
A rollercoaster season this year is one thing, but Dennis is a rider who has had a bit of an up and down career. When he’s good, he’s really good: think his two Vuelta a España stage wins in 2018 or his ITT World Championship titles in 2018 and 2019, but it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the Aussie talent. Dennis’s unapologetically honest straight talking has got him into hot water a few times with previous teams: his contract with Bahrain-Merida was terminated early in September 2019 and the Australian ended up in a legal battle with the team over payment disputes. Last year, Dennis famously said that the Ineos Grenadiers were “copying” a lot of things that Jumbo-Visma were doing when he announced his transfer.
In just four seasons, Dennis has been on three different teams. Has he found his home with Dutch outfit Jumbo-Visma?
“Jumbo is a good team for me,” he tells Rouleur. “Everything is dialled to the point where if you’re not performing it’s your fault, which is a nice thing to have. That adds extra pressure on the athlete, but that’s a responsibility that you have as a professional anyway. I’d rather be that way than you rock up to a race and your bikes are not built properly and it breaks or the equipment is second hand and you’re at a disadvantage.”
“I’d rather have the pressure on my back, knowing that everything’s perfect with equipment and with nutrition and everything, then that responsibility is on me. It’s a nice place to be, rather than finishing a race and not winning and going: I could have potentially won or this happened or that happened, then you look like you’re just complaining. It’s like when teams first brought buses in, it wasn’t to get a benefit as much as giving no excuses. You’ve got a shower. You can’t say that the public were in your face while you’re getting ready. There’s no excuse not to perform now.”
Rohan Dennis at the Vuelta a España 2022 (Image: Tim de Waele/Getty)
This meticulous attention to detail…