Dennis smashes the ATOC time trial to vault up the GC

Australia's Rohan Dennis (BMC) won the individual time trial at the Amgen Tour of California by 17 seconds ahead of Andrew Talansky (Cannondale).

Rohan Dennis (BMC) leaves the start gate of the Amgen Tour of California individual time trial (Getty) Source: Getty Images

The South Australian now moves into second overall, 16 seconds behind Etixx-QuickStep's Julian Alaphilippe.

"I was fairly confident as I crossed the line that I had set the quickest time for the rest of the race," Dennis said. I was in a fair bit of pain, the main thing I remember was that I had that taste of metallic in my mouth for the last four or five kilometres from the lactate so it was good to get a drink and wash that out.

"The wind was definitely getting stronger and stronger throughout the day which actually played into our favour a little bit with Alaphilippe because he is a smaller rider and would have been blown around a little bit more. In the end it didn't make too much of a difference with the stage win, that was my goal for the day as well as trying to take time out. So, it was still a good day, even if we didn't get the yellow jersey." 

Despite the 16 seconds separating him and Alaphilippe, and with the Etixx-QuickStep rider in a strong defensive position to play defence, Dennis holds hopes of a change of fortune.

"Tomorrow is going to be a difficult one I think," he said. "A lot people have been saying watch out for Stage 7 as Santa Rosa is super hilly, it's going to be possibly the hardest stage.

"I struggle to believe that. In some way every day has been hard and a few days have been super hard so it may just completely explode the peloton and that could actually open up possible chances to get that yellow jersey."