MARK Renshaw twice hit the deck in the opening week of this year's Giro d'Italia, but on stage 10 when others crashed heavily inside the final kilometre the Bathurst talent remained upright.
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As part of the Team Dimension Data sprint train for the epic 21-stage cycling event in Italy, Renshaw's job is to get lead sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo close to the front of the peloton as the finish line looms.
It was doing this in the 145 kilometre leg from Ravenna to Modena that helped to keep Renshaw and Nizzolo out of harm's way. When the crash occurred, both were in the right spot to avoid coming down themselves.
With a long, straight road leading to the finale, Renshaw had done a solid turn to help guide Nizzolo to the front of the bunch.
Though the Dimension Data sprinter was unable to go on and win the final dash to the line - that honour belonging to FDJ's Arnaud Demare - Nizzolo still managed fifth. It was the third top-10 stage finish thus far for Renshaw's team.
"The stage following a rest day is always an interesting one, as the body can respond in strange ways after some time off," Alex Sans Vega, Dimension Data's sport director said.
"We were part of the final though, as we had hoped to be, and Nizzolo could contest the sprint which was good. After analysing the sprint later, we will determine what we can change to get a better result. As tomorrow is likely to be another sprint, our focus is definitely to better our fifth place result of today."
