MARK Renshaw’s Tour de France campaign came to a disappointing end on Thursday night Australian time.

The Bathurst rider was forced to call it quits ahead of a brutal stage in the Alps after severe neck pain began to give him migraine headaches.

The Etixx-Quick Step rider had been desperate to try and make it through three more huge mountain stages and ride on the Champs Elysees on Sunday night, and help team-mate Mark Cavendish to another stage win.

Over time the pair have made that stage almost their own, but it won't be happening this year.

Renshaw and Cavendish haven't formed the same sort of lethal combination in 2015 that they have in the past, and the Isle of Man native only has the one stage win to boast about this year.

Things never quite got into sync for the pair, but both were determined to make it through the big mountain stages and finish on a positive note in Paris.

The pain began to get noticeable for Renshaw during stage 17 on Wednesday, and he attempted to push through it on Thursday, but, faced with a second category climb immediately as they left the town of Gap headed for Saint-Jean De-Maurienne, it didn't take long for him to rethink.

"I woke up with the same pain this morning. It's pain from really stiff muscles in my neck, and that pain from the stiffness has gone up into my head in the form of a migraine,” Renshaw said.

“Every hole, every bump, every rough part of the road I could feel the pain in the back of my head with this stiffness in my neck. I've never experienced anything like that before.

“Together with the team we decided it was best for me to stop. There is no way I could keep going like this. I already knew when I woke up this morning that it'd be hard to finish the stage. The pain was so intense and never lessened.

“It's a shame that I cannot finish this Tour de France after riding with my team-mates for two and a half weeks, especially since I was getting ready for Paris on Sunday and my legs were okay.

“I'm really sad about it, especially since I can't be there to help Mark Cavendish for the sprint on Sunday.

“But I will absolutely be there in Paris to give my full support to my team-mates in any way I can, and I wish them the best of luck in these final two days in the Alps before then."

While some of Renshaw's greatest moments on two wheels have come at the world's biggest race, he hasn't always had a comfortable time there.

Early in his road career in 2007 he was forced to withdraw with illness while riding with Credit Agricole before the race even began.

In 2010 he was disqualified from the race altogether after clashing heads with New Zealander Julian Dean in a race finish during stage 10.

During his stint with Rabobank in 2012 as a lead sprinter, no fewer than four separate falls led to him pulling the pin 70 kilometre from the finish during a mountain stage.