WHILE the 2008 Tour de France is an epic contest of over 3,500 kilometres, Bathurst cycling talent Mark Renshaw will be concentrating his efforts on a much smaller distance when the event gets underway on Saturday.
Renshaw received the news on Monday that he would get his maiden Tour de France start as part of the Credit Agricole team and his role as part of the unit will be to promote the chances of Thor Hushovd.
Hushovd is the captain of the Credit Agricole team, a previous stage winner and holder of the sprinters jersey, and Renshaw has revealed he will be doing his utmost to have the Norwegian in green once more.
“I will be the last man leading Thor out in the sprint. My role is a pretty important role to get him close to the line,” Renshaw said.
“My race really only consists of 300-400 metres, but it is still very important.
“I’d love to get him [Thor] another stage win and possibly a green jersey. I think that’s definitely a goal for him and a goal for me. I think we are definitely capable of getting a win if we get out cards right.”
In securing a Tour de France ride, Renshaw has fulfiled a goal he set himself when switching from a successful track career to turn to professional road riding back in 2004.
He had won Commonwealth Games gold at Manchester in 2002 in the teams pursuit and also found World Cup success on the track, but it was on the road that Renshaw knew his future lay.
After being a part of the FD Jeux team in 2004-05, Renshaw switched to Credit Agricole and will now ride in the world’s toughest race – the 21 stage Tour de France.
“I am overwhelmed,” Renshaw said from France on Monday morning. “It’s been a while since I’ve changed from track, it’s my fifth year as a professional now so it’s taken me a good four years to get here.
“I’ve done the other big tours, the Tour of Spain and the Tour of Italy, but the Tour de France – you could say I am rapt to get a start.”
Renshaw was touted as a possible member of Credit Agricole’s Tour de France assault last year, but illness hampered his European season in the build up and he was over looked.
The Bathurst talent got sick again when heading over to Europe at the start of 2008, and while it was a nervous period for Renshaw, he recovered quickly and went on to some impressive results.
“It’s never good to come over to Europe and get sick, this year wasn’t as bad as last year though. I think I just got a bit of bacteria in the stomach and I got over that pretty well,” he said.
“Once I got over that I’ve sort of been going pretty well. It’s scary when you get sick in Europe.”
While the Tour de Suisse was Renshaw’s last test before the Tour de France, it was his work with Hushovd in both the Tour de Catalogne and four day Dunkerque event that confirmed to Credit Agricole team officials he was ready for the main event.
As well as helping Hushovd to stage wins, Renshaw placed fourth in stage one and second in stage two of the Dunkerque event and notched up two top five stage finishes in the Tour de Catalogne.
“My form is really good now, I had a good four-day rest after the Tour de Suisse to charge up the batteries and I’m back in training now,” he said.
“This year I was pretty confident I was going to get a go, everything had just been working out well.”
Today Renshaw and his Credit Agricole team mates will travel to their Tour de France base in anticipation for Saturday’s first stage – a 197.5km ride from Brest to Plumelec.
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