Rohan Dennis hoping to be back at full strength for Olympic time trial after Rio training crash

Rohan Dennis saw his chances in the Rio Olympic time trial almost come to an abrupt end this week after crashing in a training ride on the Grumari circuit of the road race and time trial courses.

The Australian is eyeing a gold medal in the time trial next Wednesday, but will line-up in Saturday's road race alongside Richie Porte and Simon Clarke carrying several injuries picked up after hitting 'a blob of cement' on the course while riding with Porte.

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“It was just a little training mishap,” Dennis said to the media in Rio.

“I am fine. There is just a little skin off. There is no internal damage; there are no bones broken or muscular problems. It was just a bit of misfortune.

“I was on the Grumari course and...I was fixing my glasses up and talking to Richie. The cement truck drops a bit of cement on the ground and [when] it dries, it is just a blob. I just didn’t see it. It hit my front wheel, jacked my handlebars and I went straight down.

“I put my hand down to stop sliding, which wasn’t really the best thing to do but when I got up, I jumped up straight away and thought, ‘I’m fine’. Then I looked at my hand and there was a lot of skin off.

“That’s the main thing I need to get fixed. I have to hold on to my handlebars.”

The 26-year-old has already got an Olympic silver medal to his name after taking second behind Great Britain in the team pursuit at London 2012 and will be looking to go one better in his first road appearance at the Games in the individual time trial.

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The 54.5km course for the TT is likely to favour those riders with climbing ability over the powerhouses, but Dennis says the course is much kinder than he anticipated ahead of travelling to Brazil.

"I was told that the hills were really going to play a huge part but the circuits I was doing as simulation back home were actually a lot harder than what the circuit was here so that's a bonus for me," he said.

"I think as a time trialler it's not just a pure flat one — it's an all-round time trialler who's going to win."