Rohan Dennis: The highs and lows of the cycling champion after the tragic death of his wife

Rohan Dennis made headlines in late December 2023 after his wife Melissa Hoskins – a fellow former cycling champion – passed away due to injuries sustained in a tragic car accident.

The Australian is due in court in March 2024, being charged with "causing death by dangerous driving," as per Cycling Weekly. It's another controversial episode after a career with highs and lows. Let's take a look back at Dennis' way to the top.

Dennis took his first steps in cycling on the track, where he celebrated several successes. In 2012, he competed in the London Olympics, where he won a silver medal in the team pursuit.

Meanwhile, he also raced on the road and won the Australian U23 time trial title in 2010.

Follow us here for more sports features

After a spell at Team Jayco-AIS, he joined Dutch formation Rabobank's continental team in 2011. "Rohan Dennis is an exceptional talent with potential. He will get the time to progress in the Continental Team," Technical Director Erik Breukink was quoted by Cycling News at the time.

However, Dennis would never really settle at Rabobank and returned to Team Jayco the following year. It was a good move that won him both the Australian U23 national road and time trial championships in January.

After a stint at Garmin Sharp, Dennis switched to BMC in August 2014, the team where he would achieve some of the best results of his career. At the 2015 Tour de France, he won the opening time trial and was the first rider to wear the yellow jersey.

2015 was a good year for Dennis as he had earlier in February broken the World Hour Record, setting a new record distance of 52.491 km and adding his name to the history books of cycling.

In those years, Dennis also became one of the best time trialists in the world. He confirmed that status in 2018, when he won the Men's time trial at the UCI Road World Championships.

The Australian not only showed his class at the Tour de France, but also claimed an individual stage at the 2018 Giro and two individual stages at the 2018 Vuelta, joining the select group of riders who excelled in all three Grand Tours.

However, Dennis was also a fickle rider, wanting to do things his way and not readily accepting it when things did not go the way he wanted. This became evident in the 2019 Tour de France, when he withdrew for Bahrain-Merida just before the time trial with finish in Pau. Dennis was reportedly not happy with the time trial equipment provided by his team ...

Dennis was sacked by his team, but got his revenge just a few months later, when he crowned himself world time trial champion for the second time in his career.

However, it wasn't all gold that shone for Dennis around that time, who revealed that he almost suffered an eating disorder when trying to become a Grand Tour specialist. "Last year I was thinking ‘you know what? it’s probably something that physically I can do – be a Grand Tour rider – and I have the capabilities. But I just don’t know if I want to go down the road, and I’ll be honest with you, I started to eat and not eat and was on that slippery slope of a complex or disorder," he told the Adelaide Advertiser.

"It got to a point where I was putting on weight, I would have one beer but then feel guilty and wouldn’t eat at training the next day, so then I couldn’t train properly, I wouldn’t do a good session, eat minimal and bonk again. Then you think you’re sh*t, you feel down and you keep going," he added.

From 2020, Dennis would ride for Team INEOS, where he would forget about winning a Grand Tour and successfully focussed on a role as a domestique to help Tao Geoghegan Hart (pictured) win the 2020 Giro.

In 2022, Dennis took on the last challenge of his career with Jumbo-Visma. He won a gold medal in the time trial at the Commonwealth Games and the Australian national championships, and clinched the team time trial in the 2022 Vuelta, before retiring after the 2023 season.

The end of Rohan Dennis' career has led him to a very dark place. Was it an accident or something else? That's for the courts to decide.