HTC-Columbia has secured the services of ace leadout man Mark Renshaw for two more years. The Australian has been the core of the American team's sprint train, helping sprinter Mark Cavendish to the final meters resulting in many of his successes.
While Renshaw spends most of his time in service of the Manxman, he has also proven his turn of speed when left to go for his own chances. He finished second in stage two of this year's Tour de France, with points classification winner Alessandro Petacchi taking the victory. Last week he notched up third place in stage one at the Tour of Denmark, and followed up his solid result by winning stage four.
"Mark is a key rider in our sprint execution and was critical to our sprint success in the Tour de France this year and last," commented Team Manager Rolf Aldag. "He also has a lot of potential as a top sprinter himself which he proved on Saturday when he won a stage in Denmark.
"We trust in his talent and we're happy to have him as part of the solid foundation for our team," he added.
His year started off badly when he was forced to deal with illness. He ended up sitting out the early season after being diagnosed with the Epstein-Barr virus. The team initially thought he would be back in action in January, but his return to the peloton was pushed out to March. As it turned out, even March was too much of an ask, and he wasn't able to begin his season until the Scheldeprijs in April.
"I'm happy to extend with the team," Renshaw said. "I know my role and I'm happy to commit to that and be part of a successful team.
"I'm for sure looking forward to more sprints with Cav and hopefully next year I'll also get more chances to prove myself as one of Australia's top sprinters ready for Copenhagen World Championships. We rode on the course yesterday."
Renshaw had an up and down Tour de France. He began the race with a big result, but it was at the expense of his leader crashing in the run up to the line. Cavendish then misfired in his next sprint opportunity, leaving many question marks over his form, but was able to reach the dominance that saw him win six stages the previous year. During stage eleven of the Tour Renshaw was ejected from the race after piloting the Manx Missile to his third win in the race. He was involved in some argy bargy with Julian Dean (Garmin-Transitions), and then move off his line in the sprint.
He later apologized to the course director, Jean-Francois Pescheux, for the head-butting incident, and has been able to maintain his fitness until now.
"I'm really happy with my form," he added. "I think I can carry this form all the way to World Championships in Australia later this year."
The men's world championship road race will be held Sunday 3rd October in Melbourne.