Wednesday 25 September 2019 17:52, UK
Rohan Dennis successfully defended his time trial world title at the UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire as Alex Dowsett took a strong fifth place for Great Britain.
Dennis completed the 54km course from Northallerton to Harrogate in a time of one hour, five minutes and five seconds to win by one minute and eight seconds from Belgian Remco Evenepoel.
Australian Dennis was competing for the first time since he dramatically abandoned the Tour de France on the eve of the individual time trial stage in July.
The 29-year-old was reportedly in a dispute with his Bahrain-Merida team over equipment, and it was notable that he competed on a blacked-out bike.
As impressive as Dennis' ride was, Evenepoel's performance was every bit as notable.
The 19-year-old once looked set for stardom as a footballer, having been part of the Anderlecht and PSV Eindhoven academies and played for Belgium at youth level.
Having switched to two wheels he won the junior road race and time trial at last year's World Championships in Innsbruck and has skipped the U23 category to compete with the elite this year, therefore plenty of eyes will now be on him in Sunday's road race.
Dowsett, the six-time British national time trial champion, finished two minutes and one second off Dennis' time, with his top-10 finish earning Great Britain a second time trial place at next year's Olympic Games in Tokyo.
While Dowsett celebrated his best individual time trial result in a World Championships, fellow Brit John Archibald could also be happy with 14th position.
