Startling interview offers clues to Aussie's Tour de France mystery

To understand what the hell happened 80km from the end of stage 12 at the Tour de France, Rohan Dennis himself offers a clue or two.

The 29-year-old Australian cycling star has added to the bulging catalogue of bizarre Tour moments with his departure from the race.

Riders quit mid-stage all the time, but Dennis apparently went missing for a couple of hours after it happened.

And it was the day before he would have started as the rider to beat in the stage 13 individual time trial – Dennis is reigning world champion in the discipline.

It just doesn't make sense.

But Dennis is as mercurial as he is brilliant.

By his own admission, Dennis can also rub people the wrong way and it's something he has had to address.

Dennis spoke about that in an extensive interview posted last month on the Stanley Street Social podcast.

It was Dennis as his best - an hour-long discussion that shows the Australian is one of cycling's great interview subjects.

The hour-long chat, recorded in January, took an astonishing turn at the end when Dennis was asked what advice he would give to an aspiring cyclist.

"To this day, there are times when I think 'what the hell am I doing?'," Dennis said.

"In 2018 I reckon there were half a dozen times when I thought 'I could quit - right now' and January last year was the big one.

"If someone said to me 'Rohan, don't stress - if you quit today I will make sure you never have money issues for the rest of your life' I would have taken it.

"Then I just sort of chugged away. I just snapped out of it."

As the interviewer - himself a former top-level cyclist - could not contain his surprise, Dennis continued.

"I did not want to race my bike ever again. I was over this sport," he said

"But after a while you snap out of it and maybe it's a a bit of a depressed period, for a week or something, then you realise why you like it again.

"I have these little periods when things aren't going well, across the board, sometimes it's a bit tough.

"It's the same with every job ... you're bashing your head against the wall 'what am I doing? what am I doing?'

"Eventually that wall shows a crack and you're 'that's why I'm doing it', but I still go through those periods."

How the abandonment went down

- Dennis was 80km into the Tour's 12th stage, a mountainous route from Toulouse to Bagneres-de-Bigorre, when he stopped at a feed zone and it was announced he was pulling out of the entire race.

- He disappeared for several hours with his team Bahrain-Merida issuing a statement on Twitter mentioning concerns about the Australian's "welfare".

- Some witnesses claimed to see Dennis arguing with team officials in a support car around the time he abandoned the race.

- He was taken by the team car to the Bahrain-Merida bus at the finish line before he later left the bus with his agent and a team media officer, refusing to talk to waiting press.

- Bahrain-Merida sports director Gorazd Stangelj then fronted the assembled press pack but could not offer any explanation why Dennis had quit and said he thought his rider was in good enough condition to continue racing.

Possible explanations

Equipment

Some commentators have suggested Dennis has been unhappy with the bike his team have provided him for Friday's crucial individual time trial in Pau.

The Australian positioned his bike in a prime position beside the team bus when he was inside.

Illness

The Bahrain-Merida team did mention star rider Vincenzo Nibali had a stomach problem ahead of the stage, but Stangelj denied Dennis was unfit to race.

Personality clash

There has been some speculation the Australian, who only has one-year left on his contract, is growing less patient playing second-fiddle to Nibali and dealing with Stangelj.