CYCLING
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THE day before Rohan Dennis produced the fastest time trial in Tour de Francehistory to win stage one of this year's race and claim the race leader's yellow jersey, he said point blank: "I always look for first to be honest."
"One day that first will come and it will be the happiest day of my life as a cyclist."
Little wonder the 25-year-old Australian shed a tear after his stage win in oppressive heat and humidity in the Dutch city of Utrecht because he did more than just come first. His average speed for the 13.8km individual time trial was 55.446km/hr, the fastest ever recorded on a Tour de France time trial.
He was quicker than some of the legends in the race-against-the-clock including three-time world champion Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) of Germany, who was five seconds behind, and four-time world champion from Switzerland, Fabian Cancellara (Trek), who was a further second back.
Dennis' emotion was shared by those closest to him, none more so than girlfriend Melissa Hoskins, an Olympic cyclist and member's of Australia's world champion team pursuit.
It caps a stunning year so far Dennis who after winning this year's Tour Down Under in South Australia in January broke the world hour record on the track in Switzerland on February - a record which has since been bettered twice and is now held by Bradley Wiggins.
Despite his time trialling prowess, since turning professional in 2013 Dennis had never won an individual time trial.
But he has come close so many times. This year alone, he has finished three times in second place in time trials, whereas last year he was four times second (including the Commonwealth Games), twice third and once fifth (in the world championship).
But by becoming the seventh Australian to claim the yellow jersey - le maillot jaune - he had no trouble in declaring the feat as "the height" of a career that still has so much to offer.
Dennis rides for BMC, the team Cadel Evans rode for when he won the Tour in 2011, and joined Phil Anderson, Stuart O'Grady, Brad McGee, Robbie McEwen, Evans and Simon Gerrans as Australian yellow jersey wearers in the sport's biggest bike race.
The best placed of the overall contenders was Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) in 18th at 41s, followed by van Garderen in 20th at 42s, Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) in 22nd at 43s, Briton Chris Froome (Sky) in 39th at 50s, Spaniard Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) in 46th at 58s and then Colombian Nairo Quintana (Movistar) in 57th at 1m 1s.
Bathurst star Mark Renshaw finished in 165th, one minute and 46 seconds behind Dennis for his Etixx-QuickStep team, in a stage that was always going to simply be a warm-up for the flat stages to come.
He would have been hoping to get a lot more involved in the overnight trek from Utrecht to Zelande, a distance of 166km, where team-mate Mark Cavendish will be among the fancies for a stage victory.