Australian cycling star Rohan Dennis has shown his world road championship preparations are on course with a win he says is close to time-trial perfection.
Dennis continued to consign his Rio Olympics disappointment to history by winning stage two of the Eneco Tour in The Netherlands and taking the overall lead.
The Tour is a major lead-up race for the road worlds from October 9-16 in Qatar.
The 9.6km time-trial course on Tuesday night (AEST) was flat, similar terrain to Qatar, and Dennis continues to show he will be among the worlds' favourites.
Dennis is the Australian time-trial champion, finishing sixth in the event at last year's world titles, with a puncture ruining his chances of a podium finish.
He was also on the way to a medal last month at the Olympics when a broken aerobar forced a bike change and Dennis finished fifth.
Since Rio, Dennis has also won a stage and finished second overall at the Tour of Britain.
His time-trial performance in the Eneco Tour was another morale boost.
"From what I saw from my side, it was as close to perfection in a time trial," Dennis said.
"I took all the risks and kind of crossed my fingers every time I went through a corner, but it worked out.
"Today was as quick as I could go."
Dennis said he had concerns ahead of this week's race, given he had lost weight since Rio.
"Maybe I've lost that raw power that I had when I was a couple of kilograms heavier," he said.
"It's flat, there's corners here in the time trial and it was all about who had the most power today so that's a good indication for Qatar, considering that's going to be 100 per cent flat."
