Dennis relieved at career highlight

Rohan Dennis became only the seventh Australian to wear the Tour de France yellow jersey after winning the 2015 edition's opening stage on Saturday.

The 25-year-old raced around the 13.8km course in Utrecht in 14min 56sec to win the only individual timetrial in the race.

And he said it was a relief to finally win a major timetrial after finishing second so many times.

"I always aim for that top step and finally I cracked it, and obviously it's the biggest stage of cycling," said the BMC rider.

"It is possible to win and I'm not just a second place rider. On my day I'm the best in the world."

Dennis finished second in his national timetrial championships in 2013 as well as earlier this year and was silver medallist at the Commonwealth Games last year.

"It's a huge relief, a huge goal I've finally achieved. I keep saying it, it's the Tour de France, our biggest stage.
"So little people from Australia have actually worn the yellow jersey in their career, it's a huge honour."

Dennis also had to beat the very best to take the first yellow jersey on the 2015 Tour.

Three-time world timetrial champion Tony Martin was second at 5sec with four-time champion Fabian Cancellara third another second further back.

German Martin said he had struggled with the heat, which reached the mid 30s Celsius during the day.

"I'm very, very disappointed. I wanted to win. Any other result is a bad one," said the Olympic silver medallist.

"I feel that I couldn't handle the heat, especially in the second half where I felt weaker.

"It was hot but that's the Tour de France, it's in July and this timetrial wasn't long enough for me."

- Extraordinary support -

Home hope Tom Dumoulin could finish only fourth at 8sec but he doffed his cap to Dennis.

"Dennis was really strong," he said. "He has done better than me.

"I've done everything right. I took the curves really well. I heard the crowd supporting me. It was extraordinary but unfortunately I didn't make it."

Four-time world champion Cancellara had won five times before when the the Tour began with a race against the clock and each time outside France -- London, Monaco, Rotterdam and Liege twice.
But he could not repeat the trick in the Netherlands this time.

"It's like that, it's the race. What can I say, I know I lost a few seconds in some bends," said the 2008 Olympic champion.

"In the end I gave my all with the heat. I'm sorry I didn't win and get the (yellow) jersey but that's sport."

The overall contenders were separated by just 18sec with reigning champion Vincenzo Nibali gaining an edge on his rivals.

He was seven seconds quicker than Chris Froome, who was succinct in his assessment of the day's trial.

"That hurt a little.. 1 down 20 to go," he wrote on Twitter.

Nibali beat Alberto Contador by 15sec with Nairo Quintana posting the worst time of the 'fantastic four'.

"We're all more or less in the same time. The differences aren't important," said Nibali.

Debutant African team MTN Qhubeka were also celebrating after British rider Stephen Cummings finished 10th.

All the attention in the build up to Qhubeka's historic appearance as the first African team to ride the Tour had been on Eritrean pair Daniel Teklehaimanot and Merhawi Kudus, the first black Africans to take the Grand Depart.

They finished respectively in 146th and 175th, more than a minute and half down, but Cummings was only 32sec off Dennis's pace.

"Wow can you believe it... @StevoCummings finished 10th in @TeamMTNQhubeka's first @letour stage," the Africans tweeted.
Source: AFP