Rohan Dennis: Chasing the Tour de Romandie one last time

In 2022, Rohan Dennis looked to be on the cusp of victory at the Tour de Romandie, playing his hand to perfection right through from the prologue to the sprint stages and a brutal day in the mountains where he found an impressive new limit on the climbs.

In the end all, that stood between the Australian and overall victory at the six-day WorldTour race was a 16km outing in his favoured discipline, the time trial, but everything that had gone in to maintaining his lead through the preceding days turned a strength into a weakness.

“I guess it was one of those days where I probably knew the writing was on the wall from the night before when I was cramping in the podium tent and I had to have someone actually put my shoes and socks on for me,” Dennis said looking back on that final stage mountainous time trial to Villars at the 2022 Tour de Romandie.

“So I thought ‘it’s all good, I'll recover like I have every day’ but that night and the next morning, it was, ‘maybe I've gone a little bit deeper than I actually thought’. I was hopeful – I prepared as if it was just another TT that I could win – but I absolutely blew.”

The 2019 and 2018 world time trial champion started out strong on that final stage as he took off from the gate clad in the green and gold jersey of the Australian champion, coming through the intermediate check in third. However by the time he crossed the line he had not only handed the 2022 race lead over to Aleksandr Vlasov but 22nd place in the time trial meant he also fell completely away from the podium, finishing eighth overall.

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“It was probably one of the worst time trials I've ever done but at the same time ... it was a great week,” Dennis told Cyclingnews early in 2023. “In the end, I couldn't take too much away from myself in the sense that I was there from start to finish, except for the last TT.”

The Tour de Romandie is a race Dennis has regularly made a mark in over the years – either by standing on stage podiums, with stints in the leader's jersey or top ten results – but in 2022 he rose to a new level. The 32-year-old had came second in the opening prologue and then stepped into the lead on stage 1 with another second place that came after he launched a searing attack on the hilltop finish. Dennis then held firm through the next two reduced bunch sprints, even making it to the podium again on stage 3 before conceding just a slim three seconds to the top climbers on the summit finish to Zinal on stage 4.

It’s a performance that may not have culminated with overall victory, but the days before the stage 5 time trial have understandably left Dennis hopeful for the 2023 edition of the race, which starts on Tuesday April 25 and runs through to Sunday April 30.

The Australian – who announced in February that this will be his last season on the WorldTour – now has one last shot at holding that top spot at the Tour de Romandie right through to the end of the final day.

Coming good

This season so far for Dennis has consisted of a succession of stage races, starting with the Tour Down Under in January where he won stage 2 and wore the jersey of the race leader for a day. He then moved moved from his home race onto the O Gran Camiño in February, where he came second in the stage 4 individual time trial behind teammate Jonas Vingegaard. In March, it was Paris-Nice, where Jumbo-Visma claimed victory in the team time trial.

The run-in event to Tour de Romandie for Dennis was then Itzulia Basque Country but a crash on stage 4 cut his time at the race short. Still, even though he hit the asphalt, he has bounced back quickly and is heading toward the Swiss WorldTour event with a degree of optimism about his race condition.

“In Itzulia the first couple of days I was average but then I came good,” said Dennis. “The day before I crashed I actually felt back to good old me and even the day I did crash I still felt good so that gave me a lot of confidence for where I was at coming into Romandie.”

And since then?

“Everything is going pretty well with training,” said Dennis when Cyclingnews spoke to him last week. “It’s almost that I am in that phase where I am happy to be in that pain area, where I am a bit uncomfortable, which is usually a good sign for things to come.”

The form is one part of the puzzle that so far seems to be falling into place and the route of the 690km stage-race with 12,800m of climbing over six days is another factor that bodes reasonably for the prospects of the Australian, who will be lining up at the Tour de Romandie for the seventh time.

The race once again starts with a prologue in 2023, a flat 6.82km in Le Bouveret. Dennis has a history of making a strong start, finishing in the top two spots in the prologue more often than not. After the opening individual timed effort, the race moves into a hilly stage, though the vast majority of the climbing is in the earlier part of the 171km day of racing from Crissier to La Vallée de Joux so the sprinters could well rule the day on stage 1. Stage 2 – which begins in Morteau, France – delivers a lumpy 162.7km with 3,173 metres of elevation gain before finishing back in Switzerland at La Chaux-de-Fonds.

The next two stages are likely to be pivotal in the overall, though this year the 18.75km individual time trial in Châtel-St-Denis comes before the crucial day in the mountains rather than after it.

“I am pretty happy with that and I am pretty happy it is not straight up a climb as well,” said Dennis of the stage 3 time trial. “There is a climb but it is pretty mild and there is some flat and some downhill after, so I am much happier about this one. Really I would have rathered just a lumpy course but… I am sure that this is a better one than last year, 100 percent.”

Taking on the climbers

The make-or-break climbing day this year of stage 4 packs in 4,345m of elevation gain across five categorised climbs, three of those being category 1. The 161.1km day starting in Sion delivers a mountain-top finish at Thyon 2000, an ascent Dennis remembers all too well from when it was part of the course in 2021.

The Australian was then riding for Ineos Grenadiers and while he had led the overall through the first three stages of the race, Dennis had been clear from the start that his task at the race was not to defend his general classification position but to work toward the place of teammates Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte, who ended up in the top two spots overall. There was, however, a small hiccup on Thyon 2000 as when Thomas went to change gear as he sprinted to the line at the top, with hands numbed by the bitterly cold weather, the British rider lost grip on the handlebars and fell.

“It was a rough day, it was pretty wet,” said Dennis, recalling the ride in support of his teammates that day. “It was quite a nice climb, it was a long climb.

Then Dennis helped position Thomas and Porte on the lower slopes of the 20km climb before pulling off the front position at 5km to go and leaving the final battle to his teammates. This time, however, he is the rider who is expected to be pushing to the very end and perhaps will even be sprinting at the top – with a firm grip on the handlebars no doubt – to try and conserve every possible second.

“It’s going to be a day that I have to be on my best to be within reach of the proper GC climbers. I have to make some time up in the TT I think the day before or I am a bit … screwed,” he said with a chuckle.

The race finishes on Sunday with a 170.8km stage which, while far from flat, is expected to be one for the sprinters, so the fate of the GC contenders should already be clear atop Thyon 2000.

Whether or not Dennis steps up to the overall podium at the Tour de Romandie after that final stage, the Jumbo-Visma rider has some clear goals for his last edition of the race.

“I want to win both those TTs, the prologue and the longer one, and hopefully that does set me up for a good GC,” said Dennis. “That is a pretty simple way of looking at it. That is really the goal, to start off in a good way.”

Dennis will have some strong rivals to contend with when it comes to the general classification and mountain top finish. Last year’s second and third placed riders, Gino Mader (Bahrain Victorious) and Simon Geschke (Cofidis), are among a provisional start list that also includes Simon Yates (Jayco-Alula), Adam Yates and Juan Ayuso of UAE Team Emirates, as well as Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech), who won the Thyon 2000 stage in 2021 after Thomas fell.

Ahead of the Tour de Romandie, though, Dennis is focused not on his rivals but on those things he can control as he works toward delivering a race he can look back on with satisfaction, whatever the result.

“Everything is pretty good. I don’t know what other people are going to do – I never do – I just have to worry about myself,” said Dennis. “The numbers are good, I feel good, I’m happy and that’s all I can really ask for. If I get beaten, I get beaten. If I win, I win.”

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