ROHAN Dennis and Grace Brown have made an immediate impression with their new professional teams, dominating their respective time trails at the Australian road cycling championships.<\/p>\n
The Tokyo Olympians emphatically reclaimed the elite crowns on day one of the nationals, winning by more than a minute on Mount Helen course.<\/p>\n
Dennis, who has joined the Dutch Jumbo Visma team of Slovenian star Primo Roglic, made it four-all with his national time trial rival Luke Durbridge.<\/p>\n
The Tokyo Games time trial bronze medallist won by a whopping one\u00a0minute 13.13 seconds on Wednesday over the 37.5-kilometre course.<\/p>\n
Dennis, the two-time world champion in the discipline, clocked 45:33.58 and Durbridge took second with 46:46.72.<\/p>\n
Conor Leahy was 1:47.93 off the pace for the bronze medal.<\/p>\n
“It’s been a good two years since I’ve been in Australia and it’s always good to win nationals, it’s never easy,” Dennis said.<\/p>\n
“Both times when I was world champion, I couldn’t win. So it’s always about who can really prepare properly and everyone brings their A game in January.\u201d<\/p>\n
Likewise, Brown celebrated her official debut for strong French squad FdJ with a command performance in the women’s\u00a028.6km event.<\/p>\n
She won in 41 minutes 26.68 seconds, beating\u00a0Amber Pate by 1:01.43 as Lisa Jacob took the bronze in 42:40.77.<\/p>\n
“FdJ have supported me a lot already in my preparations for the time trial, so I really wanted to get this win for them, their first win of the season,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It was a pretty hard race actually, it didn’t come easy. I’m proud of the effort.”<\/p>\n
Brown had finished runner-up in the time trial at the last two nationals behind Sarah Gigante, who is out of action because of a heart condition.<\/p>\n
Brown confirmed her status as the top Australian in women’s time trial with her fourth placing amid a stellar field at the Tokyo Games.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Wednesday, Tokyo Paralympics stars David Nicholas, Carol Cooke, Paige Greco, Amanda Reid, Emily Petricola and Darren Hicks were among the category winners.<\/p>\n
Hamish McKenzie and Isabelle Carnes won the junior time trials, while Carter Turnbull and Anya Louw took out the under-23 categories.<\/p>\n
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