The reigning time trial world champion is a favourite to win gold at the Tokyo Olympics this year,which led one UK media outlet to recently suggest his two-year deal with the famed British squad Ineos was a"vanity"signing.
Ineos sports director Brett Lancaster denounced the suggestion as cheap"gossip"ahead of the six-stage Tour Down Under in which Dennis,as well as new teammates Dylan van Baarle and Pavel Sivakov,will be joint leaders.
Lancaster said Dennis appeared to fit well into the squad that features Tour de France champions Chris Froome,Geraint Thomas and 2019 winner Egan Bernal,as well as the reigning Giro d'Italia victor,Richard Carapaz,at a recent training camp in Spain.
"Rohan walked in and the first thing I saw was he was playing a game of chess with[British national champion] Ben Swift,"Lancaster said.
"People say what they want about him but let me tell you,we've got a lot of difficult riders in teams and not saying he is at all,he'd be on one of the easy lists for me. He's been a pleasure to work with so far. It's all about just giving him the right guidelines,giving him a good race program and then sticking to what you do.
"He's no different to anyone else. He loves a joke and the British guys,they like a lot of banter."
Dennis excels in time trials but in recent years has focused on becoming an all-rounder,improving his climbing and losing weight to realise an overarching ambition of becoming a grand tour contender.