Why did Rohan Dennis leave the Ineos Grenadiers? Because ‘they were copying Jumbo’
Why did Rohan Dennis leave the Ineos Grenadiers? Because 'they were copying Jumbo'
As his first season with Jumbo-Visma looms, Rohan Dennis has shed some light on his decision to leave the Ineos Grenadiers and join the Dutch WorldTour outfit.
Speaking via a video at the Jumbo-Visma team presentation on Tuesday, the 31-year-old Australian did not shy away from pointing out what he sees as the advantages of riding for his new team over his old one.
“I’ve noticed when I was with Ineos, they were copying Jumbo with a lot of stuff, and I thought, well, why would I want to be in a team that’s copying a team on the other side of the fence?” Dennis said. “Why not go join that team and be on the front foot and not the a back foot?”
In his relatively short appearance in Jumbo-Visma’s video, Dennis did not provide too many specifics on the ways in which he sees Jumbo-Visma as being a step ahead of the Ineos Grenadiers, but he did make it clear that he sees a difference.
“Basically I wanted to move here because technically it is a better team,” he said. “It looks like a great structure.”
Dennis spent two years in the Ineos organization, which signed him after he spent less than a year with the Bahrain Merida team. Dennis had joined Bahrain as the reigning world time trial champion following a lengthy stint at BMC, but he did not race for Bahrain Merida after his surprising departure from the 2019 Tour de France, and his contract was terminated in September of that year.
He went on to win his second straight TT world title and then joined Ineos, where he rode in support of Tao Geoghegan Hart’s overall victory at the Giro d’Italia in 2020 and took two WorldTour-level wins in 2021.
In moving to Jumbo-Visma, Dennis is returning to an organization with which he already has some familiarity, having ridden for Rabobank’s Continental development team back in 2011.
“It’s slightly different – that was a Conti team, a lot different – but I think it’s a nice move and I’m really excited about it,” Dennis said.
“In sport there’s usually one or two teams that are really pushing to define those extra 1 or half percent, and at the moment, the team that’s leading is Jumbo.”
Dennis is getting his 2022 campaign underway in Australia this week at the national championships. He will later head back to Europe, where he will focus his buildup on an expected start at the Tour de France.
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