CYCLING
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WHEN Bathurst professional cyclist Mark Renshaw got sick in South Africa earlier this year it undid a lot of the hard work he had put in to start his season, but yesterday (AEST) in the opening stage of the Tour of Turkey he proved that he is back in control.
In his familiar role as lead out man for Etixx-QuickStep team-mate Mark Cavendish, Renshaw delivered the sprinter perfectly after 145 kilometres of riding.
Cavendish came off Renshaw’s wheel with 200 metres to go and won the dash to the line at Alanya ahead of Australian Caleb Ewan in a time of three hours, 17 minutes and 58 seconds.
After rolling across the line in 25th, Renshaw congratulated Cavendish on his seventh win this year. It is a scene he hopes to repeat as the eight-stage Tour of Turkey continues.
“We had a really good start to the year, he [Cavendish] just got better and better until the trip down to South Africa and that’s where it all kind of fell apart,” Renshaw told cyclingnews.
“That knocked us back five pegs out of 10.
“[But] This year he [Cavendish] looks to me a lot more focused. He’s always a good bike rider all year round, but this year he has that little bit added extra focus to win big races. He’s already won a lot and this next block of racing with Turkey, California and of course finishing with the Tour de France, I think we’ll see him in better shape than last year.”
Last year Cavendish won four stages in the Tour of Turkey and with the opening day of the 2015 edition one for the sprinters, he was keen to add to that success.
A group of five riders broke away inside the first 10km of the circuit that took the field on a loop that started and finished Alanya, but they were kept in check by the chasing peloton.
Their maximum advantage was three minutes, 35 seconds and with 20km to go, their hopes of staying clear were gone.
Teams then aggressively tried to organise their sprint trains. It was QuickStep who did it the best as they set up Cavendish.
“I won this stage as well last year,” Cavendish said.
“We talked about the competition at the team meeting and we recognised that there are a lot of big sprinters at the race this year. So we knew it would be chaotic, and it really was in the last kilometers ... it was nice to finish the job of the guys after what they did today.”
The result in the opening stage may make the decision on where Renshaw and Cavendish will end up when their current contracts expire an easier one.
The partnership which was born in 2009 at team HTC has been one of the most feared in professional road cycling as Renshaw has helped Cavendish to countless victories across the globe.
The duo did have two seasons apart after HTC became defunct – Renshaw signing with Rabobank and Cavendish Team Sky – before joining forces once more last year.
The Bathurst talent is keen to keep their partnership going in the future.
“At this stage in my career, he’s got great confidence in me, it’s a role I do well and I’d like to stay with him. He wants to keep me, I’d like to stay, now it’s all between the managers,” he said.
“I room with him and race with him most of the year, so I probably spend the most time with him of anyone in the team.
“He’s definitely a winner – he thrives off that. He expects everything to be perfect, as you do in any team sport where there’s glory and victory on the line. Big riders like that lift teams.”
The second stage of the Tour of Turkey was contested overnight (AEST), the field covering 182km between Alanya and Antalya.