Rohan Dennis is not afraid of the heat, when he aims at the title in the Individual Time Trial at the UCI Road World Championships Doha 2016.
“Suck it up and just deal with it. To be honest, it’s all in your head,” the 26-year-old Australian says. “You’ll suffer a bit more, but if you just try to forget about that heat… It is what it is.”
Dennis, who won silver with BMC Racing on the opening day of the World Championships in Qatar, heads into the Individual Time Trial as one of the podium favourites. The winner of last year’s prologue in the Tour de France came fifth at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, but Fabian Cancellara (gold) and Chris Froome (bronze) will not compete on The Pearl circuit.

Keep the ball rolling
Dennis is confident after winning the individual time trial at the Eneco Tour in the Netherlands: “Things have been good for me, obviously in the Eneco Tour. In the Tour of Britain I did not win, but it was a different course to what this is, and I was somehow a little bit cautious with the rain. It was not really worth risking a crash. So I had a good prep and I just have to keep the ball rolling.”

Usual suspects
Despite the absence of both Cancellara and Froome, Dennis expects fierce competition at The Pearl. “The usual suspects will be there: Tom Dumoulin, Tony Martin. Vasil Kiryienka for sure wants to try to defend his title. He’s not had the best season, but neither did Cancellara before Rio. You can never rule out someone as good as him. And there’s Jonathan Castroviejo, who won the European Championships. It’s an open playing field and there’s always underdogs who can come up, just like (Adriano) Malori did last year.”

Pan flat
Dennis thinks the pan flat Doha course will not be very much to his advantage. “It does suit me, but it would make it easier if it was a little more hilly, not mountainous, just hilly. It’s all power. I have the power, but I have to work harder than someone who’s heavier.”

New bike
BMC racing rode the Team Time Trial on brand new time trial bikes. This will help Dennis in the ITT too. “The bike is good, I do really like it. We can feel it’s fast. Technically for us it could be better, but we have to go through UCI legal, that’s the rules. This bike is a real improvement to the old bike. The front end has less frontal surface. The base bar, much like most time trial bikes these days, goes straight to the top tube. It’s quicker and more aerodynamic. But in the end the best judge will be Wednesday.”
Changing material just ahead of an important race does not worry Dennis: “It’s a challenge, but at the same time we’ve got good mechanics and they’ve made sure our positions are exactly the same as on the older time machines. I’m not too worried about that. I could ride a bike that’s got a round frame, completely different. As long as the position is exactly the same I’m able to put that power out.”