Rohan Dennis has revealed that he will compete in the UCI Road World Championships time trial in Yorkshire for the first time since quitting the Tour de France. He is also confident he will ride for Bahrain-Merida in 2020, despite his breakup with the WorldTour team.

Dennis abandoned the Tour de France midway through the 12th stage to Bagnères de Bigor in July, the day before the 27km individual time trial in Pau. Bahrain-Merida said it did not know why Dennis abandoned the race.

Dennis and Bahrain-Merida management reportedly had a disagreement over his equipment and skin suit, but neither Dennis nor the team acknowledged that such a disagreement was the direct cause of his abstention.

"What I did was pull out of the race and it was blown out of proportion and people accused me of being everything under the sun," Dennis said in an interview with Adelaide's The Advertiser.

"I read quite a few of the posts (on social media), but people didn't get responses from me, so I started sending direct messages to my wife."

Dennis refrained from commenting to the press on why he abandoned the Tour de France, but shortly after stage 12, Bahrain-Merida's Directeur Sportif Gorazd Stangeri held a press conference outside the team bus and said that his rider left the race He stated that he was confused and disappointed. Denis said he canceled his Twitter account in the media storm that followed.

"I've stopped tweeting and I'm not participating in a slander war. Because I gave others a chance to resolve this issue in an adult manner," Dennis told the Advertiser. I don't want to add more fuel to the fire. I don't want to add more fuel to the fire."

"When I pulled out and before I pulled out, I never said anything bad about sponsors, teams, or other riders in the media. I loved talking to the media, right up until the last day."

"Other people have said things and spread rumors. But I haven't. Because it's fair to all parties."

Dennis admitted that the aftermath of his abandonment of the Tour de France led to the most difficult period of his career. He said this was the first time he had abstained from a bicycle race midway through a race, neither pre-planned nor due to injury.

His early withdrawal from the Tour de France was not pre-planned, but due to a split-second decision in the middle of stage 12.

"It wasn't pre-planned, it wasn't staged. I was talking to my manager before the start and we agreed that we would finish the stage and then deal with other things. But we knew that in the short term we would have to deal with some flak and backlash for pulling out. It's a bike race, so I didn't expect it to get this big, but in the long run it was the best thing for me," Dennis said.

"I was thinking about everything throughout the stage and fighting in my own head for a good portion of the day. I talked to everyone at the hotel that night and there was no hard feelings." Even [Vincenzo] Nibali said, "I followed you to the point where you had to pull over and start driving again." They said, "OK, you're good to go.""

Dennis has not raced since abandoning the Tour de France. He could have competed in the Vuelta a España, but that did not happen, and he is focusing all his efforts on training to defend his title in the 54 km time trial at the world championships.

He is regularly seen by sports psychologist David Spindler from his home in Andorra.

"Physically, it's the same as last year, and the power profile test I did two weeks ago was the best I've ever done," Dennis told the Advertiser. [Some days are tough mentally, but I still believe we can win [in Yorkshire]. It's going to be a mental battle because all I've done is training. In the Vuelta I would have had stage goals and not-so-stage goals, but in the race I don't have anything to push me."

"It was perfect preparation. After the Tour de France, I was going to ride the Vuelta in full to see if I could get the same physical response from riding a full Grand Tour, which could lead to Tokyo next year.

"I still wanted to run the Vuelta, but obviously that didn't happen.

Dennis said that not competing in the Vuelta a España meant that his preparation for the World Championships was more difficult, but that his coach had changed his training to accommodate time trial-specific training.

"My sports psychologist has been working with me and supporting me in the last two weeks of preparation. To be honest, it wasn't super easy."

"It was not super easy.

Dennis confirmed that he will race on an unmarked time trial bike during the World Championships, along with components for the Australian national team.

"It's what [the national team] decided was best for my shape and position to win," Dennis said.

After abandoning the Tour de France, Dennis returned to Andorra to rest and then visited Tokyo to preview the course for the 2020 Olympics. He said that apart from the Yorkshire World Championships, his next major goal would be the Olympic time trial.

"I am motivated by Tokyo, but to be honest, I am more driven by the World Championships this year. But to be honest, I'm more motivated by the World Championships this year. [Looking at the course with coach Neil [Henderson] and the Aussie national team and thinking about what's best to win: Brad Magee, Paul Brosnan, and Simon Jones, who weren't there, but are fully supportive of me being on the Australian team. They are.

Dennis said he is under contract with the team through 2020, although he is not sure if Bahrain-Merida plans to race him for the rest of 2019.

"I've pushed for wins in every race I've been asked to win this year. 'We've finished second in the Tour de Suisse, won a stage, and fifth in the Tour Down Under, and all we've been thinking about is improving the team.' So far, yeah, I'm there [next season]."