STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — The fastest time trial ever at the Tour de France. A world hour record. A stage win and an overall victory at the Santos Tour Down Under in his home country of Australia in January.
That’s just the 2015 cycling season for Rohan Dennis, a 25-year-old former rider for the Boulder-based Cannondale-Garmin squad now with BMC Racing.
On Monday in Steamboat Springs, he almost added another stage win at the USA Pro Challenge, but the peloton caught him and Guillaume Boivin of Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies with less than a kilometer to the finish. His teammate, Boulder native .
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“We went on downhill, and then it was sort of just playing it by ear. Had a bit of fun out there and nearly won the stage,” Dennis said. “Obviously, there are stages where I’m definitely not saying that. Every year I can see myself getting slightly better, even at these races at altitude.”
Dennis downplayed his fitness heading into this race, saying the course favors those who rode in the steep Tour of Utah and the Colorado natives such as Phinney and Kiel Reijnen of UnitedHealthcare, who finished second.
Dennis arrived in the United States just 10 days ago with a goal of finishing at the UCI Road World Championships in September.
His season has been long, and though there were doubts about him, he put them to rest Monday, blasting up the third part of the route’s major climb with about 25 miles left.
Dennis is the kind of rider who reacts based on feel: If the opportunity presents itself, he’ll go. He covered moves after the peloton fell into disorganization descending into Steamboat Springs, with no clear team driving the main field.
“He gets into this fire mode, where he sees red,” Phinney said. “And that’s what makes him great.”
Daniel Petty: 303-954-1081, dpetty@denverpost.com or twitter.com/danielpetty
Tuesday’s stage 2
115.3 miles
Start time: 10:55 a.m.
Projected finish time: 3:35 p.m.
Start: Steamboat Springs
Brief description of course: 1.3-mile neutral start in Steamboat Springs before traveling out of town over Rabbit Ears Pass (9,391 feet) through Kremmling and Parshall and over Ute Pass (9,570 feet) into Silverthorne before heading through Dillon and Keystone and ending with a mountaintop finish at Arapahoe Basin (10,789 feet). Intermediate sprints for the green jersey in Kremmling and Dillon.
