Cycling world champion deletes social media accounts after allegedly breaking lockdown rules

Team Ineos Rohan Dennis posts pictures of himself apparently breaking Spanish law

Cycling, like most of global sport, has been suspended as countries try to stem the coronavirus outbreak. Reuters

Australian world champion cyclist Rohan Dennis has closed his Instagram and Twitter accounts after appearing to break Spain's lockdown law over the weekend.

The 29-year-old Team Ineos' rider is the world time-trial champion but his career has been marked by controversy, including quitting team Bahrain-Merida after parking his bike by the team bus and disappearing during the last Tour de France.

This weekend he voiced his dissatisfaction on Instagram with the length of the lockdown in Spain, one of the worst affected countries by the coronavirus, before deleting his accounts.

Screen grabs from other Instagram users showed posts such as: "Day 34 - cracked and left the house. #covid19 can suck my ass and so can #quarantine."

The accompanying photo appeared to have been taken on a country-road from a car.

Ineos is active in the fight against Covid-19, producing hand sanitiser and delivering it to hospitals.

Dennis lives in Girona, close to the Pyrenees.

He is a talented cycling and has won stages on all three Grand Tours. The Adelaide native joined Ineos at the start of this year and would likely have been a contender for May's postponed Giro d'Italia and favourite to defend his world crown in Switzerland in September.

Dennis is widely reported to have told online critics he was only being honest and asking if they would prefer him to lie.

Dennis won the first stage of the 2015 Tour de France and briefly wore the famed yellow jersey.