Despite Stage 6 Time Trial Win, Rohan Dennis Moves Only to Second Place

Rohan Dennis of BMC Racing won the Amgen Tour of California 20.3 kilometer Individual Time Trial by 16 seconds over Julian Alaphilippe of Etixx - Quick Step but moved to within 16 seconds of Alaphilippe’s overall lead in the Tour of California. Dennis beat out Andrew Talansky, Cannondale Pro Cycling and Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing). Dennis’s effort moved him up to second in the overall seconds at 16 seconds behind.

Team BMC’s Taylor Phinney, established an early lead in the time trial at 24:36. His time stood until U.S. National Time Trial Champion Andrew Talansky beat his time by three seconds.Several riders had good intermediate times, but they failed to follow up with an equal second time trial half. Riders had a tailwind going out on the course and a headwind coming back to the finish. Rohan Dennis (BMC) took note of the wind conditions and rode accordingly. Dennis’s intermediate time was 8 seconds slower than Talansky, but the Australian Time Trial Champion came in 17 seconds faster than Talansky at the end.

Often a rider wearing the leader’s jersey performs well in a time trial, even though the time trial is not their specialty. This was the case for Julian Alaphilippe. Alaphilippe rode 14 seconds behind Dennis at the intermediate split and 31 seconds slower at the end, finishing eighth. But by finishing only 45 seconds behind, Alaphilippe kept the lead in the Tour.

Stage Results

1. Rohan Dennis, BMC Racing  24:16

2. Andrew Talansky, Cannondale Pro Cycling -  0:17

3. Taylor Phinney, BMC Racing -  0:20

4. Soren Kragh Andersen, Giant – Alpecin -  0:33

5. Brent Bookwalter, BMC Racing -  0:43

6. Vasil Kiryienka, Team Sky -  0:44

7. Lawson Craddock, Cannondale Pro Cycling -  0:44

8. Julian Alaphilippe, Etixx – Quick-Step -  0:45

9. Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Team Katusha -  0:50

10. Neilson Powless, Axeon Hagens Berman -  1:04

Overall Standings

1. Julian Alaphilippe, Etixx – Quick-Step: 24:26:46

2. Rohan Dennis, BMC Racing -  0:16

3. Brent Bookwalter, BMC Racing -  0:38

4. Andrew Talansky, Cannondale -  0:47

5. Neilson Powless, Axeon Hagens Berman -  1:08

6. Samuel Sanchez, BMC Racing -  1:17

7. Lawson Craddock, Cannondale -  1:17

8. Laurens ten Dam, Giant – Alpecin -  1:24

9. George Bennett, LottoNL – Jumbo -  1:45

10. Jurgen Van den Broeck, Katusha -  1:48