Rohan Dennis has won two Olympic medals and two time trial world titles, but he won't automatically be at the top of the time trial podium when January arrives.

Durbridge may not be as good as Dennis as a time trialist, but as the new Jumbo Visma rider pointed out in a post-race interview, winning the world championship in this discipline does not ensure that he will get the green and gold stripes The world champion in this discipline does not guarantee that he will get the green and gold stripes. When Dennis lined up in that position at the start of 2019 and 2020, he did not win. Durbridge did win.

"There's a reason they call him the King of January," Dennis said, referring to Durbridge's strength in both time trial and road races in the Australian summer.

This year, however, the time trial in Australia was the first race under the new team colors of Jumbo Visma, and Dennis was determined to regain the title he had won three years in a row from 2016 to 2018. He drew further motivation for his training from that goal and remained carefully focused during the two-week hotel quarantine that was a condition of his return to Australia and beyond.

"Training is going well. My training is going well, I felt confident. I wasn't stressed," said a relaxed and buoyant Dennis, who won the national title on Wednesday. I knew that if I could put up the kind of numbers I've been putting up in training, everything was going to be fine."

"I was in the right frame of mind [during the time trial], I was calm, I thought, okay, this is going to work, everything is going to work out. So I think it was my training and my confidence."[11

It was not only the result of winning the national title, but also when and how Dennis did it. On a hilly 37.5 km course near Ballarat, he clocked a time of 45:33, 1:13 ahead of the Bike Exchange-Jaycor athlete. His average speed was 49.39 km/h.

Durbridge and Dennis now have four national elite time trial titles each.

Dennis, 31, did not return to Australia last year, but had competed in time trials the two years before that and no other races. He last lined up in a road race at the All-Japan Championships in 2018, but he has decided that is the challenge this year, plus he will be working on Sunday's race with an eye on the podium, and hopefully the top step.

"I'd love to win a road race. I've never finished a road race before, so it would be great to win the first one I finish," Dennis grinned.

"A podium finish would still be a great accomplishment in that race."

Dennis cited the challenge of beating Durbridge, the 2013 road race title winner, on the road rather than in the time trial, but that it would not be easy to beat him in the time trial either.

Then there is the fact that Jumbo Visma will field a team with just two riders, Dennis and Chris Harper.

"I just think you have to be pretty smart," Dennis said. You just have to be pretty smart about it," Dennis said, "and not overdo it and play the cards when they come. It's not easy. Obviously, a lot of teams are playing with five, six, maybe eight or ten guys.