Following up on a mid-October Cycling News story that Team Ineos was the most likely destination for time trial world champion Rohan Dennis, the Advertiser, based in Dennis' hometown of Adelaide, South Australia, reported Monday that the 29-year-old reported that Dennis is indeed joining the British WorldTour team for 2020.

Dennis left the Bahrain-Merida team midway through the Tour de France. Since then, Dennis has been rumored to be moving to another WorldTour team for next season, such as the CCC team or Movistar, but Bahrain Merida's new team principal, Rod Ellingworth (who was appointed Bahrain's team principal from Team Ineos in early October), told the British newspaper He admitted to the Telegraph that he had hoped to keep Dennis on board. [However, since mid-October, following his successful world title defense in Yorkshire, England, in September, Ineos had become a likely final destination for Dennis.

As the Advertiser points out, it is not clear how Denis will be able to compete with the British WorldTour organization (which already has Tour de France winners Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas, and Egan Bernal, and 2019 Giro d'Italia winner Richard Carapas It is unclear what role he will play in the race (which he has won for 2020), but Denis has shown his versatility in the past. In addition to emerging as the world's best rider against the clock, Dennis has won overall titles in stage races such as the Tour Down Under and the USA Pro Challenge, and finished second overall in the Tour de Suisse this season.

His climbing ability has improved markedly in recent years since implementing his own "four-year plan" to see what he could do in Grand Tours beyond time trials, starting with the 2016 Rio Olympics. Since then, after failing to finish in a Grand Tour for a variety of reasons, Dennis recorded his highest finish of 16th overall in the 2018 Giro d'Italia and also won the individual time trial on stage 16.

That four-year plan will "disappear" at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. On the hilly time trial course, Dennis may find redemption for the brutal mechanical problem (broken aero handlebars) that cost him a medal at the 2016 Games.

After the unusual route to his second TT world title this year - no top-end racing at all after abandoning the Tour in July, and two full months of special training - Denis will have a Grand Tour before the Olympic time trial on July 29 next season. He has come to believe that he may not need to race the Grand Tours.

"It has given me the confidence that anytime I'm not perfectly prepared race-wise, it doesn't necessarily change the outcome," he told the Advertiser.

"With all the people saying, 'You have to race the Grand Tour,' or 'You have to race this or that,' it's possible to win without racing."

"So when you come to Tokyo, it may not necessarily be the best idea that you have to do the Tour." Let's think more specifically about how to best prepare for Tokyo." That may be the best way.