Bahrain-Merida terminate contract with Rohan Dennis

Bahrain-Merida have announced that they have terminated the contract of Rohan Dennis with immediate effect.

The team announced the termination during the elite men's road race at the Road World Championships in Yorkshire, where Dennis had been racing as part of the Australian team.

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The contract termination took place on September 13 according to the statement released by the team, but was not made public until after the World Championships to allow Dennis space to prepare.

"The team terminated its contract with Mr Dennis on 13th September 2019," a team statement read.

"This termination has not previously been made public to allow Mr Dennis an undisturbed preparation for the UCI 2019 Road World Championships."

"Mr Dennis has referred the termination to the UCI Arbitral Board. Against this background, no further comment will be made at this time."

Having only joined the team at the start of the 2019 season, a rift between the team and Dennis spilled into public view at the Tour de France after the 29-year-old mysteriously abandoned the race on stage 12 with no explanation.

The Tour's only individual time trial was coming on the next stage, with the now two-time world time trial champion a clear favourite for victory. Allegedly however, the differences between the team and the rider developed because of Dennis dissatisfaction with the equipment provided to him for time trials.

He won his second time trial World title just this week on board a blacked-out BMC Timemachine time trial bike instead of a team issue Merida, and on Sunday rode a BMC Teammachine road bike in the Worlds road race, which he abandoned as the race entered Harrogate.

Dennis did not race again for the team following his abrupt abandonment of the Tour and instead trained specifically for the time trial in Yorkshire last Wednesday.

In an interview in his time out of racing, Dennis had initially said he expected to stay with the team heading into the 2020 season, but he is now back on the market and will be an attractive proposition for a number of WorldTour teams.