Giro d’Italia 2020 – Rohan Dennis felt 'a little bit average' before climbing masterclass

Updated 24/10/2020 at 20:36 GMT

Rohan Dennis added another string to his bow with a second sensational effort in the mountains that left Ineos teammate Tao Geoghegan Hart level on time with Team Sunweb’s Jai Hindley at the top of the general classification going into Sunday’s final stage.

Rohan Dennis leads Tao Geoghegan Hart and Jai Hindley up a climb on Stage 20 at the Giro d'Italia

Image credit: Getty Images

Ineos Grenadier’s super domestique Rohan Dennis admits he felt “a little bit average” before setting a punishing pace that ripped open the GC battle at the Giro d’Italia and handed teammate Tao Geoghegan Hart a huge shout of triumphing in Italy.

Dennis hit the front of the Ineos train with 30 kilometres remaining of Saturday’s penultimate stage and quickly distanced Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) in the maglia rosa – just as he had on Thursday’s ascent of the iconic Stelvio.

Only Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb) and Geoghegan Hart, second and third in the general classification prior to the day's action, could live with the Australian’s tempo as the two youngsters sat on his wheel until the third and final ascent to Sestriere.

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In a thrilling spell in the closing kilometres, a spree of attacks from Hindley were closed down first by Geoghegan Hart, and then the unflappable Dennis, who refused to go away.

Geoghegan Hart won a sprint to the line ahead of Hindley to claw back four bonus seconds that leaves the pair neck-and-neck going into Sunday’s decisive individual time trial.

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“At 45km to go, I was feeling a little bit average. I over-fuelled and I was burping and bringing some stuff up to be completely honest with you,” Dennis told Eurosport’s Orla Chennaoui on The Breakaway.

“So I was a little bit worried but I kept that to myself and we stuck to the plan. Honestly, it’s actually an honour to be able to work for this team and when you’ve got a good team environment, it’s super easy to want to do your job and do more than what you’re supposed to do.”

Dennis’ climbing exploits are perhaps the biggest surprise of this year’s Giro, with his heroics on the Stelvio paving the way for Geoghegan Hart to climb into overall contention.

“The Stelvio gave me a lot of confidence, that I could hurt the GC guys and really help Tao when it really mattered”, continued a beaming Dennis.

“And today, I just thought ‘let’s try it again’. So when I heard Wilco was gone, it just gave me that bit of a lift and it was all about time trialling to the top of the penultimate climb.

“I knew if we had a gap at the bottom of that descent I could just time trial to the bottom of the last climb and take some more time out.

“It was about finding ways to make Wilco isolated and obviously then it was just about Tao versus Jai on that final climb and pacing it as best as possible to save Tao’s legs for the final couple of kilometres.”

Dennis on his climbing exploits: ‘I was a little worried’

The race will be settled by a 16.5km individual time trial between Cernusco di Naviglio and Milan as the Giro gears up for the tightest finish ever in its 111-year history.

Dennis, a two-time world time trial champion, hopes that he and teammate Filippo Ganna can aid Geoghegan Hart in his quest to pull on pink on Sunday. Ganna has won both individual time trials so far at the Giro.

“We’ll give our best to give him as many tips as possible,” added Dennis.

“Technically, Tao is the better time trialler, but anything can happen on the last stage so we really have to keep everything light-hearted, keep Tao believing in himself and trying to not put pressure on him.

“Everything’s gone absolutely amazingly for Tao so far, so we just have to keep doing what we’re doing and whatever the result is, I think we can take a lot out of this Tour.”

It marks a tremendous recovery from Ineos, who were already in turmoil before leader Geraint Thomas abandoned with a fractured pelvis after Stage 3.

They appeared content with stage wins – they have six at this year’s Giro – but the Geoghegan Hart-Dennis double-act has left them one day away from a reputation-salvaging victory.

"Losing G on Stage 3, the GC was almost thrown out the window, and now we’re equal first going to the last stage," concluded Dennis.

"We’re just ecstatic about everything that has happened these last 21 days."