After his debut season with Jumbo Visma, Rohan Dennis said the Dutch team will still be at the top of the sport for some time to come, with a big gap between them and the rest of the peloton.

Dennis joined the team from Ineos Grenadiers off last season and said that since then, Jumbo Visma has been far ahead of its rivals technically, and that the previous team "did a lot of imitations of Jumbo."

The Australian, who won the Australian and Commonwealth time trial titles this season, reiterated this point in a recent interview with Rouleur (opens in new tab).

"I don't think anyone will succeed Jumbo for a while," Dennis said. 'Of course, it's a team that legitimately pushes the limits to get the best performance out of all its riders.' [Jumbo is] a good team for me. Everything is tuned to the point where if I don't perform, it's my fault." There's a lot of extra pressure on athletes, but that's my responsibility as a professional."

"It's better than going into a race and having a bike that's not built properly and breaking down or having used equipment that puts you at a disadvantage."

Dennis raced one Grand Tour in 2022, supporting Primoš Roglic's GC bid at the Vuelta a España. He was not selected for the Jumbo-Visma Tour de France, but admits that he was not in perfect health and holds no ill will about that selection.

"Nothing is guaranteed," he said. I wasn't in perfect health or anything at the Tour this year." Nathan took my position and he was flying.

In the Vuelta, he was part of the team that won the team time trial and contributed to Roglic.

The final winner, Lemko Evenepoel, was already 1:26 ahead overall at that point, and the Belgian won by two minutes in Madrid. He showed little weakness over the three weeks, but Dennis noted that he could exploit weaknesses in the future.

"Technical downhill," Dennis said. 'You don't want to take advantage of bad luck like the crash he had in the downhill [stage 12], but that was a crack. We can't let him win.

"It's part of the sport to find a weakness and exploit it. Before that crash he didn't show much weakness in the downhill, but after that he was a little nervous. There were some cracks there

"The day Primos crashed at the finish, those cracks showed up in Lemko. He was a little technical, a little fighty, a little nervous. Luckily he suffered a puncture with 3km to go."

Dennis said he hopes to take on his home race next year, the Tour Down Under, which has not been on the calendar since 2020. He is also eyeing the Tour de France and the world championship time trial, which he has won twice before.

"The Tour Down Under is back," he said. 'After that, I still don't know if it will be the Giro or the Tour. Of course, the Tour will be a prelude to the World Championships in 10 days, and the World Championships time trial is a race I would like to try again."

"The time trial course is back where it should be, over 40 km. I think it should be closer to one hour."