Dennis wins Geelong Tour

Rohan Dennis (Jayco Skins) scored a well-deserved overall victory in the the GMHBA Tour of Geelong that finished today after five days of racing.  Jayco Skins also topped the teams classification.

The 20 year old South Australian Dennis protected his lead in today's final stage of the 400km Tour that was raced in appalling weather conditions on most days.

Dennis ended the tour 1:33 clear of second ranked Patrick Shaw (Virgin Blue RBS Morgan) with consistent Queenslander Cameron Jennings (Budget Forklifts) 42 seconds further back in third place.

The final stage criterium was raced over 25 laps of a 1.8km slippery circuit and doubled as the Victorian Open Championship.  Joel Pearson (Genesys Wealth Systems) won the day ahead of Dale Scarfe (McDonagh Blake – Witness) with Malaysia’s Harrif Saleh third.

Dennis finished safely in the bunch and said he was 'tremendously excited' to have won the Tour.

“It’s the first tour win of my career and hopefully there’s many more to come,” said Dennis. “This Geelong tour was good and tough. The course was excellent but really challenging.”

Dennis won the Australian Under 23 time trial title at Buninyong in January and was last week named in the Australian Cyclones team to contest the U23 time trial at next month's World Championships in Geelong.  He claimed two of the tour’s six stages – the opening 48km criterium at North Shore on Wednesday and the 20km time trial at Portarlington on Friday - and  fought a tense battle with Albury’s Rhys Pollock (Drapac) over the first four days. But Dennis swamped his more senior rival over the tough, twisting climbs of the 143km road race at Anakie on Saturday.

The 111-man field was confronted by extreme weather throughout the event, with rain, wind and slippery roads creating hazardous conditions for the competitors.