Rohan Dennis dispute with Bahrain-McLaren thrown out by UCI

The dispute between Rohan Dennis and Bahrain-McLaren has been thrown out by the UCI.

Time trial world champion Dennis had a very public falling out with his old team during the 2019 season, which resulted in Bahrain terminating his contract mid-way through the year.

Dennis then lodged a complaint with cycling’s international governing body, arguing he should be paid until the end of 2020.

But the UCI arbitration board dismissed the claim, saying: “The board issued today (Thursday, July 30) a decision in the case opposing Mr. Rohan Dennis to the paying agent Bahrain World Tour Cycling Team of the UCI WorldTeam Bahrain-McLaren.

“The Panel dismissed the rider’s claims. The decision may be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport within 30 days.”

Tensions between Dennis and his team boiled over during the 2019 Tour de France when the Australian 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.

Dennis did not race for the team, then called Bahrain-Merida, again and went on to win a second consecutive world time trial title on an unbranded BMC bike instead of the team issue Merida.

Then immediately after the world championship road race in Yorkshire last September, where Dennis played a support role for the Australian team, Bahrain announced they had terminated Dennis’s contract.

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.

>>> Jumbo-Visma: Tour de France not just us versus Team Ineos 

Dennis has since signed with Team Ineos on a two-year deal.