IT may not have been the sprint victory he was chasing, but Bathurst cyclist Mark Renshaw still finished the 101st edition of the Tour de France yesterday in impressive fashion with a top five placing.

After covering 3,663.5 kilometres in 21 days, it came down to the final seconds on the Champs-Elysees in Paris as the sprinters battled it out for victory in the prestigious closing stage.

Renshaw’s Omega Pharma-QuickStep team-mate Tony Martin had helped the Bathurst talent be at the head of the peloton as they steamed towards the line at more than 60km/hr, but it was German Marcel Kittel who took the honours.

Renshaw had tried to follow his wheel as Kittel reeled in Katusha’s Alexander Kristoff who had opened the sprint, but could not go with the Giant-Shimano rider and crossed the line in fifth after three hours, 20 minutes and 50 seconds.

“My strategy for the sprint was to not start too early,” revealed a delighted Kittel.

“So, when Kristoff passed me, he’d already had a little more time to accelerate and to gain some speed, so that was the reason I think I was a bit behind him at first.

“When I noticed that he couldn’t go any faster, that was the moment when I had the chance to pass him again. But it was close. I wasn’t sure I’d really have enough at the end, but I’m super happy that I did.”

The fifth placing in the 137.5km leg from Evry to Paris made it six top 10 and five top-five placings for Renshaw in the world’s biggest cycling race.

He also placed fifth in the points classification which, for the third consecutive year, was won by Peter Sagan.

It was an impressive effort given Renshaw had built his preparation around being the lead out man for team-mate Mark Cavendish in the sprints.

Renshaw was promoted to QuickStep’s head sprinter after Cavendish crashed out in the opening stage.

While losing the prolific Tour de France stage winner and former green jersey victor was a massive blow for the Belgian based team, Renshaw helped them to make it a successful campaign.

Aside from Renshaw’s efforts in making it his best Tour de France campaign in terms of personal results, his room-mate Martin landed a pair of stage wins and Matteo Trentin also gave QuickStep a victory.

“We came here as a sprint team and to lose your sprinter in the first day, it can almost throw you into a situation of what to do now. But all eight riders [who remained] are super strong. It’s easy to see how they’ve got along without me there with them,” Cavendish said.

While the team of 2014 Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali were given the respect to lead the way when the field set out from Evry, when the peloton reached Paris it was no longer Astana who dictated terms.

Sylvain Chavanel launched the first attack of the stage with 54km to go and was part of a four-man break. From that group Richie Porte survived the longest, being pulled back by the peloton with 7.4km to go just before the bell rung for the last lap.

QuickStep’s lead out train jostled with those of Giant-Shimano, Lotto-Belisol, Garmin-Sharp and Cannondale as they tried to give Renshaw the best chance of victory.

Going into the final kilometre the lead out trains lost control and while Renshaw still had Alessandro Petacchi with him, they could not match Kittel’s final acceleration.

Renshaw’s attention will now turn towards the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. He will contest the men’s road race, which is set to start at 9.01pm Australian time on August 3.