Rohan Dennis powers his way to time trial world title

.Australia’s Rohan Dennis has powered his way to the world time trial title in Innsbruck-Tirol this afternoon.

The 28-year-old from Adelaide was in rich form after winning two time trial stages at the Vuelta earlier this month to add to a stage victory against the clock in May’s Giro d’Italia.

Today, he was in a different class to the rest of the field, completing the 52.1-kilometre route in 1 hour 2 minutres and 3 seconds, well over a minute faster than the next closest rider, defending champion Tom Dumoulin.

The Dutch rider, the last man on the course, finished second, trailing Dennis by 1 minute 21 seconds.

By the second time check it was clear that barring misfortune on Dennis’s part, Dumoulin would be surrendering his crown.

But despite the knowledge he would beaten to the top step of the podium he dug in deep to pip   in deep to pip Victor Campenaerts of Belgium to the silver medal by just half a second, with the next closest rider Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski, a further 47 seconds back.

Dennis’s dominance was such that ahead of the line he even reined in a former wearer of the rainbow jersey in the discipline, the Belarus rider Vasil Kiryienka, who had started three minutes ahead of him and who finished ninth today.

Great Britain’s representatives Alex Dowsett and Tao Geoghegan Hart, finished 29th and 35th respectively.