New-look Abu Dhabi Tour gives Rohan Dennis pre-Giro litmus test

The honeymoon will have to wait another week for Australian Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing), who married long-time girlfriend and recently retired Olympic track cyclist Melissa Hoskins in Western Australia earlier this month.

The 27-year-old former ‘Hour Record’ holder and reigning three-time national time trial champion had an unexpected call-up to the fourth annual Abu Dhabi Tour (UCI 2.UWT), but admits he’s looking forward to testing himself against the world’s best, including many of whom he hopes to face at the Giro d’Italia come May.

“This was a last minute change to come to Abu Dhabi at the end of the Tour Down Under,” the 2015 TDU champion told Eurosport at the pre-race press conference at the home of the Formula One circuit on Yas Island.

“I wasn’t supposed to be here,” he continued. “We weren’t going to have a honeymoon, but had a pre-wedding one which is a bit unusual.”

The Tour de France stage winner once again has his eyes set on maglia rosa success, especially after he was forced to abandon the race on Stage 4 last year following a late-race crash inside the final 10km on the previous stage two days earlier.

“So this year is basically the same goal with the Giro,” explained Dennis. “Everything has started well so far. Training has been a little bit different from last year, [we are] trying to move away from the intensity this time of year. So far it’s worked.”

Following his third straight ITT title, Dennis selflessly helped BMC teammate and fellow countryman Richie Porte to a second overall in Adelaide before turning his attention to his main objective in the first half of the season.

“I did near to none before Tour Down Under,” he admitted. “Just a little bit of sharpening up because you can’t go in with absolute nothing. Since TDU, I’ve basically just been taking on long [kilometres] trying to get that base in — a bit more old school and preparing for May — fingers crossed things are going to end a little bit better this year.”

But before Dennis can set his sights solely on Italy, he must first line up in what has shaped up to be a stellar field for the second WorldTour stage race of the season. With three sprint stages expected, the kicker comes from a penultimate stage 12.6-kilometre individual time trial followed by what should be the decider — the hilltop finish atop Jebel Hafeet, featuring 10.8km ascent after 189km spent with an average gradient of 6.6 percent and a max of 11.

“If it was 30 or 40k, I’d say 100 percent,” claimed Dennis when asked if an ITT could make the difference regarding his own general classification hopes.

“I think the big goal this week is to get that win on the time trial and then test my legs out on the final day on he climb and see what I need to work on against the guys like Tom [Dumoulin], [Alejandro] Valverde, Rui [Costa] … a lot of guys here that are really good climbers.

“Nice to see where the power is at with raw overall effort on the climb.”

Sunweb’s Dumoulin, who won the Giro last year, told media on Tuesday he was excited to don his rainbow jersey on Saturday and, like Dennis, also looked forward to the climb.

“I just saw my time trial world champion jersey. It’s amazing, so I’m looking forward to wearing it,” said the 27-year-old Dutchman. “The Abu Dhabi Tour has a perfect course for me with the time trial and the uphill finish.

“We came here with a good team, including Wilco Kelderman riding for GC.”

When asked about his feelings of wearing his own national ‘green and gold’ stripes on the day, Dennis was both prideful and ambitious.

“It will be good,” he said. “I’d rather be wearing the rainbow jersey, but I will have to wait another couple of months to have another crack at that.”