The time trial was almost half the usual distance seen used in previous Tour de France’s, so many teams opted to take it easy and conserve energy ahead of tonight’s flatter stage.

With mountain stages looming, any chance for sprinters to feature are at a premium, so Renshaw and his Credit Agricole team-mates did not go all out in the Cholet time trial.

Credit Agricole were not alone in adopting this approach, many of the name sprinters pushing at around 70 per cent with thoughts of a stage win 24 hours later on their mind.

The tactics were employed across the board by Renshaw’s team-mates, illustrated by Credit Agricole ranking 19th of the 20th outfits for the day.

Riders went out facing a strong headwind, but after getting through the first check point at the 11km mark, times improved.

With a tailwind on the way home some riders hit 70km/hr, but Renshaw took it easier as he clocked 40 minutes for the distance and ranked 147th.

His time was four minutes, 15 seconds down on that of stage winner Stefan Schumacher, who averaged 49.534km/hr in Cholet.

The 26-year-old German, who rides for Gerolsteiner, clocked a 35:44 to give him the stage win ahead of Kim Kirchen (35:54) and David Millar (36:02) and claim the yellow jersey.

“It’s extraordinary to be on the podium in this jersey,” Schumacher told cyclingnews.com.

“Because this is the Tour de France and everybody dreams of wearing this jersey. Also, the moment on the podium, you see it 1,000 times on television and then you’re there yourself, it’s impossible to imagine.”

Australian Cadel Evans was fourth for the stage, 27 seconds down on Schumacher, but it did improve his standing in the overall contest as he was quicker than a number of his main rivals.

“It is a good start but it is a long, long way to Paris,” Evans told media after the stage.