Tour de France 2015: Rohan Dennis uses pain of defeat to drive him to yellow jersey and record books

TO understand what wearing the Tour de France’s yellow jersey means to Adelaide’s Rohan Dennis is to know the pain he endured in scaling cycling’s heights.

Tour de France - Stage 1 - Time Trial

ADELAIDE’S Rohan Dennis is wearing the yellow jersey after the opening stage of this year’s Tour de France. But to understand what it truly means to him is to know the pain he went through to get there.

In the past two years the BMC star has ridden more than 15 individual time trials and finished second six times as well as third, fifth and sixth — including at the world championships and Commonwealth Games.

AUSSIE DENNIS HUGE ON WORLD”S BIGGEST STAGE

IRONMAN HANSEN TO EQUAL GRAND TOUR RECORD

That’s a lot of losing, often by a matter of seconds, but Dennis never made excuses and would simply say he wasn’t good enough.

But on Saturday night in Utrecht, The Netherlands, at long last he was good enough and he could not have picked a bigger stage to prove it.

Rohan Dennis at the start of his record-breaking ride. Photo: Sarah Reed.

The 25-year-old won Stage 1 of the Tour de France, a 13.8km individual time trial, to become just the seventh Australian in history to wear the prestigious yellow jersey.

And he did it with the fastest average speed of 55.45km/h in Tour de France history, surpassing Chris Boardman’s 21-year record.

He was the only rider of 198 in the field to go under 15 minutes, finishing in the time of 14mins 56secs, ahead of three-time world champion Tony Martin, four-time world champion Fabian Cancellara and the likes of Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali and Alberto Contador.

The former swimmer — who only turned to cycling at the age of 15 after the South Australian Sports Institute tested him for his compatibility to the sport at school — was last night leading the biggest bike race in the world.

Dennis was the toast of the Tour on day one — though his champagne went un-drunk. Photo: Sarah Reed.

Flanked by former BMC teammate and Tour de France champion Cadel Evans and girlfriend Melissa Hoskins who is an Australian track cycling world champion, Dennis could scarcely believe what he had achieved.

“I’ve had a lot of second places and that’s always going to be in the back of your mind but it was just go out there and give it everything and whatever happens, happens, and for once I’ve broken (through),” Dennis said.

“(There’s) a little bit of shock, I came out about a month ago to check out the course and we went with the tactic of going off early — there’s no stress, you don’t have to sit around all day — just set a benchmark and make everyone else chase me.

Dennis was a picture of form and speed across the entire individual time trial. Photo: Sarah Reed.

“It worked out perfectly. Tour de France, yellow jersey, it’s a dream. I have always wished to be in this position and now I am.

“It was soaking in when I saw most of the bigger threats coming in just behind me, and it was almost surreal but a few emotions came out for sure.

“So far it’s definitely the highlight of my career and I couldn’t have actually planned it out better.

“The support BMC have given me, they’ve done everything possible to make this day (possible).”

It has been a fairytale year for Dennis who won a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics in the team pursuit before leaving the track to concentrate on the road.

Dennis endured a string of near-misses before his incredible Tour success. Photo: Sarah Reed.

In January he upstaged Evans to win the Tour Down Under on his home roads and three weeks later broke the world hour record — which now belongs to Bradley Wiggins.

Dennis made his Tour de France debut in 2013 but then aged just 23, only lasted eight stages before abandoning.

Last week he told News Corp he was physically and mentally better prepared for his second crack at the Tour and had his eye on the yellow jersey in Stage 1.

“Having been through a Grand Tour — the Vuelta a Espana — last year has taught me a lot about the barriers I can go through to make it from start to finish in good physical shape,” Dennis said.

Dennis joins an illustrious list of Australian cyclists to wear the maillot jaune at the Tour de France, following Phil Anderson, Stuart O’Grady, Bradley McGee, Robbie McEwen, Cadel Evans and Simon Gerrans.

Stage 2 of the Tour was set to continue on Sunday night with a pancake flat 166km from Utrecht to Zelande.