Silver for Dennis in time trial

(L-R) Rohan Dennis of Australia, Alex Dowsett of England and Geraint Thomas of Wales celebrate with their medals after the Men's Cycling Road Time Trial. Source: Ryan Pierse / Getty Images

NINE seconds was all that stood between Rohan Dennis and redemption in Glasgow when he won a silver medal in the time trial at the Commonwealth Games.

Having endured a frustrating run of second placings in time trials on the WorldTour this season, Dennis led at the 26km checkpoint only to be cruelly denied gold by England's Alex Dowsett who won the 38.4km race in 47mins 41 secs.

The 24-year-old Australian made no excuses for his narrow miss and said his silver medal was still a very good result.

"But to be second again — it's now four or five second places this year — so it's getting a bit annoying you could say," he said.

"At the same time you've got to take the positives out of it and it's still a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games which is still a huge result.

Rohan Dennis goes past The Tolbooth during the Men's individual time trial. Source: Getty Images

"I feel proud and bittersweet."

This year alone, Dennis has been second in time trials at the Tour of California, Tour de Romandie, Criterium International and Circuit Cycliste Sarthe, and third at the Tour of Switzerland which highlights his incredible potential and consistency but doesn't make it any easier to accept.

The pain on his face after the race as he hugged girlfriend Melissa Hoskins, who is representing Australia on the track and road in Glasgow this week, showed what Commonwealth Games gold would have meant to him.

"I suppose it can only make you hungrier and I've been pretty hungry since (the Tour of) Suisse," said Dennis who rides professionally for Garmin-Sharp.

"I was pulled out of (Tour of) Austria at the last minute and that sort of fired me up a little bit.

"I was a little bit annoyed about it and like (David) Millar we put our head down to get the best result and second place was it."

The top nine riders across the finish at Glasgow Green were all WorldTour quality with Geraint Thomas claiming bronze and Dennis' Australian teammates Michael Hepburn (6th) and Luke Durbridge (9th) also producing strong rides.

Australia's Michael Hepburn starts the Men's Cycling Individual Time Trial. Source: AFP

Millar, the Scottish defending champion who will retire at the end of the season, was the 60th and final rider to start the course and he was cheered by the home crowd all the way to finish eighth.

Dowsett strongly and led at the 6km checkpoint and Dennis fought back to reclaim the lead midway through the race, but the 25-year-old Englishman who rides for Movistar finished stronger.

"The radio was pretty crackly, I couldn't really hear a lot but I could sense it was positive and heard 'five seconds up' but I think that might have been on Geraint Thomas," Dennis said.

"It was a bit of a shock when Alex came through and he was nine seconds up because I felt pretty strong the whole way through and had nothing left at the end.

"But physically to my ability today I rode it to perfection.

"I was really happy with the course, it was a great course and it suited me perfectly but it just wasn't my day."

Hepburn, Dennis and Durbridge won a team pursuit world title together in 2011 and yesterday they continued Australia's remarkable ability to transition young riders from the track to the road at a major Games.

Australia's Luke Durbridge feels the pain as he nears the finish of the time trial. Source: AFP

"We all rode together as juniors, then in the under-23 program and in 2011 with Jack (Bobridge) we won the worlds in the team pursuit," Hepburn said.

"It's a different sort of squad (riding the time trial in Glasgow) and I think you can also see that in the road squad that's been selected for Sunday, it's a younger crew and I think it's good that Australia has time triallists at our age able to get some really good results and we're only getting better."

Hepburn, 22, said he felt okay on the course and was hoping for a stronger finish but it didn't quite happen.

"I thought I was on a fairly good one and then G (Geraint Thomas) came past me with about 10km to go and that's pretty hard on the head (mentally)," he said.

"But I knew if I could keep within a couple of hundred metres of him I might be still able to do a good ride and overall I'm fairly happy, it wasn't perfect but it was a good ride."

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