Tour of Britain: Mark Renshaw answers his critics with stage five sprint
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Thursday, September 15, 2011

Tour of Britain: Mark Renshaw answers his critics with stage five sprint

by Ben Atkins at 11:40 AM EST   comments
Categories: Pro Cycling, Race Reports and Results, Tour of Britain
 
Lars Boom keeps the gold jersey after a long breakaway threatens his lead

mark renshawMark Renshaw (HTC-Highroad) sent a message to the Australian national selectors by taking victory in the fifth stage of the Tour of Britain between Exeter and Exmouth. The Australian, who was passed over for selection for the World championships later in the month, finished ahead of teammate Mark Cavendish in a reverse of their usual positions in a bunch sprint at the end of the 180.3km Devon stage.

UnitedHealthcare’s Robert Förster was the best of the rest, taking third behind the HTC-Highroad pair.

"On the final kilometre, Renshaw was piloting Cavendish perfectly for the win," HTC-Highroad sports director Allan Peiper explained, "But in the last corner, Cav backed off and Renshaw came out of it in the lead, so he hammered toward the line and finished just ahead of Cavendish."

For a long time a sprint looked unlikely after a thirteen-man break managed to get more than six minutes clear in the stage’s mid point. The best-placed rider in the break was Linus Gerdemann (Leopard Trek), who was one of four in the group that started the day just 19 seconds behind race leader Lars Boom (Rabobank). Boom’s teammate Bram Tankink was one of those four though, and so the Dutch team decided not to chase.

Eventually though, the peloton did manage to pull back the thirteen men, with Damien Gaudin (Europcar) the last to resist. The Frenchman was finally reeled in with just thee and a half kilometres remaining, only for HTC-Highroad to take control of the sprint finish.

"Rabobank did a lot of work to reel them in but cracked toward the end, and with the help of a few more teams we were able to bring the break back a bit," Peiper explained. "Somewhere between thirty and forty kilometres to go the break started attacking and fell apart, and by twenty to go, the peloton was back together with our boys up front."

"The guys did a great job controlling the front until Bernie [Eisel] got a flat. The roads were extremely narrow and without radios it took too long for us to get a car to him, so he was effectively out of the race."

Boom holds on to the race lead, with Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) still lurking in second spot, just twelve seconds behind.

A local rider pulls a big group clear and nobody decides to chase

The first big attack of the day came from local rider Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (Rapha-Condor-Sharp), starting the day in second place in the mountains classification, who jumped away on the first climb to Haytor Rocks on Dartmoor. The British rider stayed away over the top of the next two climbs to the Coffin Stone and Huccaby Tor, but soon afterwards was joined by Linus Gerdemann (Leopard Trek), Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Bartosz Huzarski (NetApp).

A chase group of nine riders made up of Alex Wetterhall (Endura), Preben Van Hecke (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator), Bram Tankink (Rabobank), Bert-Jan Lindeman (Vacansoleil-DCM), Gabriel Rasch (Garmin-Cervélo), Michael Rogers (Team Sky), Marcin Bialoblocki (Motorpoint), Damien Gaudin (Europcar) and Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare) managed to get across to the leading four.

As they passed through the feedzone after 96km the group was 6’30” ahead of the peloton and, with most of the bit teams in the race represented it was unclear which team would take the responsibility to pull them back.

With nobody in the break HTC-Highroad would ordinarily be the team to take control of the peloton, but this was complicated somewhat by the withdrawal of Alex Rasmussen on the morning of the stage. The Dane would normally have been one of the strong workers in this kind of situation, but the American team was now reduced to five riders.

The gap comes down as the group splits up

Despite there being no one team to take control on the front of the peloton, the gap began to fall steadily in the second half of the stage. With 40km to go, and with the gap down to less that two minutes, the attacks began in the front group, with Van Hecke the first to try to escape the others.

The Belgain’s attack was chased down by Rogers, with Tankink bringing the others across but, when Wetterhall went a few kilometres later, he was able to get clear. The Swedish rider was soon joined by De Gendt and Van Hecke, with Gaudin chasing across, cutting the thirteen-man lead group to four. They now led by less than a minute though and, even without Rasmussen, HTC-Highroad put Lars Bak, Matt Brammeier and Bernhard Eisel to work, and the gap was shrinking fast.

One by one the remnants of the breakaway began to give up; first De Gendt sat up, then Wetterhall was unable to hold on, and finally, as Gaudin attacked, Van Hecke was forced to concede and the Frenchman rode away alone.

The Europcar rider was determined to stay away, but was now fighting against the combined efforts of HTC-Highroad and Garmin-Cervélo, who had come forward on behalf of the previous day’s winner World champion Thor Hushovd. With just over three kilometres to go the Frenchman finally gave up his effort and Hushovd’s team took the peloton into the finish.

With just over two kilometres to go the An Post-Sean Kelly team pulled through, but Garmin-Cervélo and HTC-Highroad soon reasserted themselves. Under the flamme rouge An Post-Sean Kelly came forward once more, but was battling for the lead with UnitedHealthcare as they approached the final corner.

Renshaw led Cavendish around as he has successfully done so many times but, doubtless mindful of the Australian selectors’ decision, the Manxman eased up and allowed his teammate to open up a gap. Renshaw continued his sprint, with Cavendish leading the rest behind him, and crossed the line first, just ahead of his teammate with both riders sitting up and celebrating in the reverse of their accustomed order.

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Tour of Britain (2.1) Stage 5 Results: Exeter to Exmouth (180.3 km)

  Click on the arrowsat the top of the column to sort the race results.
Country Result Name Team Time
aus AUS 1 Mark Renshaw (HTC-Highroad) 04:17:38
gbr GBR 2 Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) s.t.
ger GER 3 Robert Förster (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) s.t.
gbr GBR 4 Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) s.t.
gbr GBR 5 Andrew Fenn (An Post-M. Donnelly-Grant Thornton - S...) s.t.
aus AUS 6 Mathew Hayman (Team Sky) s.t.
aus AUS 7 Zakkari Dempster (HTC-Highroad) s.t.
bel BEL 8 Stijn Neirynck (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) s.t.
aut AUT 9 Daniel Schorn (Team Netapp) s.t.
ita ITA 10 Giacomo Nizzolo (LEOPARD - TREK) s.t.
ned NED 11 Boy Van Poppel (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) s.t.
gbr GBR 12 Jonathan Mcevoy (Motorpoint - Marshalls Pasta) s.t.
bel BEL 13 Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) s.t.
ger GER 14 Paul Voss (Endura Racing) s.t.
nzl NZL 15 Julian Dean (Garmin-Cervelo) s.t.
nzl NZL 16 Jack Bauer (Endura Racing) s.t.
ned NED 17 Lars Boom (Rabobank) s.t.
gbr GBR 18 Mark Mcnally (An Post-M. Donnelly-Grant Thornton - S...) s.t.
gbr GBR 19 Thomas Murray (Sigma Sport - Specialized ) s.t.
gbr GBR 20 Daniel Lloyd (Garmin-Cervelo) s.t.
ita ITA 21 Cesare Benedetti (Team Netapp) s.t.
ned NED 22 Bram Tankink (Rabobank) s.t.
est EST 23 René Mandri (Endura Racing) s.t.
gbr GBR 24 Tobyn Horton (Motorpoint - Marshalls Pasta) s.t.
ger GER 25 Linus Gerdemann (LEOPARD - TREK) s.t.
esp ESP 26 Iker Camano Ortuzar (Endura Racing) s.t.
irl IRL 27 Ronan Mclaughlin (An Post-M. Donnelly-Grant Thornton - S...) s.t.
ned NED 28 Wouter Sybrandy (Sigma Sport - Specialized ) s.t.
nor NOR 29 Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervelo) s.t.
gbr GBR 30 Ian Bibby (Motorpoint - Marshalls Pasta) s.t.
fra FRA 31 Mathieu Claude (Europcar) s.t.
fra FRA 32 Yohann Gene (Europcar) s.t.
swe SWE 33 Alexander Wetterhal (Endura Racing) s.t.
aus AUS 34 Karl Menzies (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) s.t.
aus AUS 35 Michael Matthews (Rabobank) s.t.
ned NED 36 Joost Posthuma (LEOPARD - TREK) s.t.
fra FRA 37 Alexandre Pichot (Europcar) s.t.
gbr GBR 38 Steven Cummings (Team Sky) s.t.
ned NED 39 Bert-jan Lindeman (Vacansoleil-DCM) s.t.
pol POL 40 Marcin Bialoblocki (Motorpoint - Marshalls Pasta) s.t.
gbr GBR 41 Jonathan Tiernan-lock (Rapha Condor Sharp) s.t.
gbr GBR 42 Liam Holohan (Team Raleigh) s.t.
fra FRA 43 Gael Le Bellec (Team Raleigh) s.t.
cze CZE 44 Jan Barta (Team Netapp) s.t.
gbr GBR 45 Richard Handley (Team Raleigh) s.t.
gbr GBR 46 Roger Hammond (Garmin-Cervelo) s.t.
ger GER 47 Dominik Klemme (LEOPARD - TREK) s.t.
NAM 48 Dan Craven (Rapha Condor Sharp) s.t.
cze CZE 49 Leopold Konig (Team Netapp) s.t.
aus AUS 50 William Clarke (LEOPARD - TREK) s.t.
aus AUS 51 Michael Rogers (Team Sky) s.t.
bel BEL 52 Willem Wauters (Vacansoleil-DCM) s.t.
gbr GBR 53 Simon Richardson (Sigma Sport - Specialized ) s.t.
gbr GBR 54 Peter Williams (Motorpoint - Marshalls Pasta) s.t.
bel BEL 55 Stijn Joseph (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) s.t.
ltu LTU 56 Gediminas Bagdonas (An Post-M. Donnelly-Grant Thornton - S...) s.t.
sui SUI 57 Andreas Dietziker (Team Netapp) s.t.
gbr GBR 58 Steven Lampier (Sigma Sport - Specialized ) s.t.
gbr GBR 59 Andrew Tennant (Rapha Condor Sharp) s.t.
gbr GBR 60 Tom Last (Sigma Sport - Specialized ) s.t.
nor NOR 61 Gabriel Rasch (Garmin-Cervelo) s.t.
fra FRA 62 Franck Bouyer (Europcar) s.t.
bel BEL 63 Kenny De Ketele (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) s.t.
bel BEL 64 Preben Van Hecke (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) s.t.
gbr GBR 65 Daniel Fleeman (Team Raleigh) s.t.
gbr GBR 66 Alex Dowsett (Team Sky) s.t.
den DEN 67 Lars Ytting Bak (HTC-Highroad) s.t.
pol POL 68 Bartosz Huzarski (Team Netapp) s.t.
gbr GBR 69 James Sampson (Motorpoint - Marshalls Pasta) s.t.
gbr GBR 70 Kristian House (Rapha Condor Sharp) s.t.
aus AUS 71 Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) s.t.
irl IRL 72 Mark Cassidy (An Post-M. Donnelly-Grant Thornton - S...) s.t.
gbr GBR 73 Ian Wilkinson (Endura Racing) 00:00:16
can CAN 74 Jamie Sparling (Team Raleigh) 00:00:17
ned NED 75 Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) s.t.
irl IRL 76 Matthew Brammeier (HTC-Highroad) s.t.
bel BEL 77 Pieter Ghyllebert (An Post-M. Donnelly-Grant Thornton - S...) s.t.
bel BEL 78 Dominique Cornu (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) s.t.
fra FRA 79 Anthony Charteau (Europcar) s.t.
gbr GBR 80 Ben Swift (Team Sky) 00:00:28
usa USA 81 Chris Jones (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) 00:00:46
fra FRA 82 Damien Gaudin (Europcar) 00:02:31
gbr GBR 83 Russel Hampton (Sigma Sport - Specialized ) 00:03:10
aut AUT 84 Bernhard Eisel (HTC-Highroad) s.t.
bel BEL 85 Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) 00:04:30
ned NED 86 Rick Flens (Rabobank) 00:04:32
ned NED 87 Coen Vermeltfoort (Rabobank) s.t.
aus AUS 88 Jonathan Clarke (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) s.t.
den DEN DNS Alex Rasmussen ()  
gbr GBR DNF Graham Briggs (Rapha Condor Sharp)  
ned NED DNF Jeroen Janssen (Team Raleigh)  

General classification after stage 5:

Country Result Name Team Time
ned NED 1 Lars Boom (Rabobank) 16:54:29
gbr GBR 2 Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) 00:00:12
ned NED 3 Boy Van Poppel (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) 00:00:14
gbr GBR 4 Daniel Lloyd (Garmin-Cervelo) 00:00:16
ger GER 5 Linus Gerdemann (LEOPARD - TREK) 00:00:17
gbr GBR 6 Ian Bibby (Motorpoint - Marshalls Pasta) 00:00:19
bel BEL 7 Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) s.t.
gbr GBR 8 Steven Cummings (Team Sky) s.t.
ned NED 9 Bert-jan Lindeman (Vacansoleil-DCM) s.t.
ned NED 10 Bram Tankink (Rabobank) s.t.
cze CZE 11 Jan Barta (Team Netapp) s.t.
cze CZE 12 Leopold Konig (Team Netapp) s.t.
gbr GBR 13 Jonathan Tiernan-lock (Rapha Condor Sharp) s.t.
gbr GBR 14 Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) 00:00:34
gbr GBR 15 Andrew Fenn (An Post-M. Donnelly-Grant Thornton - S...) s.t.
esp ESP 16 Iker Camano Ortuzar (Endura Racing) 00:00:37
aus AUS 17 Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) s.t.
ned NED 18 Joost Posthuma (LEOPARD - TREK) 00:00:39
ger GER 19 Dominik Klemme (LEOPARD - TREK) s.t.
aus AUS 20 Michael Rogers (Team Sky) 00:00:43
NAM 21 Dan Craven (Rapha Condor Sharp) 00:00:48
aus AUS 22 Michael Matthews (Rabobank) 00:01:30
den DEN 23 Lars Ytting Bak (HTC-Highroad) 00:02:46
gbr GBR 24 Russel Hampton (Sigma Sport - Specialized ) 00:04:15
bel BEL 25 Stijn Neirynck (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) 00:04:16
aus AUS 26 Mathew Hayman (Team Sky) s.t.
gbr GBR 27 Ben Swift (Team Sky) 00:04:34
gbr GBR 28 Alex Dowsett (Team Sky) 00:04:45
bel BEL 29 Willem Wauters (Vacansoleil-DCM) 00:06:00
fra FRA 30 Anthony Charteau (Europcar) 00:06:37
gbr GBR 31 Kristian House (Rapha Condor Sharp) 00:07:50
nor NOR 32 Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervelo) 00:07:54
pol POL 33 Bartosz Huzarski (Team Netapp) 00:08:04
gbr GBR 34 Daniel Fleeman (Team Raleigh) s.t.
nzl NZL 35 Julian Dean (Garmin-Cervelo) 00:08:10
nzl NZL 36 Jack Bauer (Endura Racing) 00:08:18
nor NOR 37 Gabriel Rasch (Garmin-Cervelo) 00:08:23
gbr GBR 38 Jonathan Mcevoy (Motorpoint - Marshalls Pasta) 00:08:24
ger GER 39 Paul Voss (Endura Racing) s.t.
gbr GBR 40 Simon Richardson (Sigma Sport - Specialized ) s.t.
est EST 41 René Mandri (Endura Racing) s.t.
fra FRA 42 Alexandre Pichot (Europcar) s.t.
gbr GBR 43 Liam Holohan (Team Raleigh) s.t.
gbr GBR 44 Mark Mcnally (An Post-M. Donnelly-Grant Thornton - S...) 00:08:35
aus AUS 45 Zakkari Dempster (HTC-Highroad) s.t.
bel BEL 46 Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) 00:08:45
ned NED 47 Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) 00:08:52
fra FRA 48 Gael Le Bellec (Team Raleigh) 00:08:57
pol POL 49 Marcin Bialoblocki (Motorpoint - Marshalls Pasta) 00:09:00
aut AUT 50 Bernhard Eisel (HTC-Highroad) 00:09:20
gbr GBR 51 Roger Hammond (Garmin-Cervelo) 00:09:21
ltu LTU 52 Gediminas Bagdonas (An Post-M. Donnelly-Grant Thornton - S...) s.t.
usa USA 53 Chris Jones (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) s.t.
gbr GBR 54 Tobyn Horton (Motorpoint - Marshalls Pasta) 00:10:15
ita ITA 55 Giacomo Nizzolo (LEOPARD - TREK) 00:10:23
gbr GBR 56 Thomas Murray (Sigma Sport - Specialized ) 00:10:25
gbr GBR 57 Andrew Tennant (Rapha Condor Sharp) 00:11:06
ger GER 58 Robert Förster (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) 00:11:12
bel BEL 59 Dominique Cornu (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) 00:11:36
aus AUS 60 Karl Menzies (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) 00:11:49
ita ITA 61 Cesare Benedetti (Team Netapp) 00:12:27
fra FRA 62 Franck Bouyer (Europcar) 00:12:31
irl IRL 63 Ronan Mclaughlin (An Post-M. Donnelly-Grant Thornton - S...) 00:12:51
bel BEL 64 Pieter Ghyllebert (An Post-M. Donnelly-Grant Thornton - S...) 00:12:55
ned NED 65 Wouter Sybrandy (Sigma Sport - Specialized ) 00:13:01
gbr GBR 66 Richard Handley (Team Raleigh) 00:13:08
gbr GBR 67 Steven Lampier (Sigma Sport - Specialized ) 00:13:29
aus AUS 68 Mark Renshaw (HTC-Highroad) 00:13:32
swe SWE 69 Alexander Wetterhal (Endura Racing) 00:13:45
sui SUI 70 Andreas Dietziker (Team Netapp) 00:13:48
bel BEL 71 Preben Van Hecke (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) 00:13:53
bel BEL 72 Kenny De Ketele (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) 00:13:55
aus AUS 73 William Clarke (LEOPARD - TREK) 00:14:06
fra FRA 74 Yohann Gene (Europcar) 00:14:13
gbr GBR 75 Tom Last (Sigma Sport - Specialized ) 00:14:21
gbr GBR 76 James Sampson (Motorpoint - Marshalls Pasta) s.t.
gbr GBR 77 Peter Williams (Motorpoint - Marshalls Pasta) 00:14:41
aut AUT 78 Daniel Schorn (Team Netapp) 00:14:42
fra FRA 79 Mathieu Claude (Europcar) s.t.
bel BEL 80 Stijn Joseph (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator) s.t.
gbr GBR 81 Ian Wilkinson (Endura Racing) 00:14:58
irl IRL 82 Matthew Brammeier (HTC-Highroad) 00:15:20
can CAN 83 Jamie Sparling (Team Raleigh) 00:15:24
irl IRL 84 Mark Cassidy (An Post-M. Donnelly-Grant Thornton - S...) 00:16:27
ned NED 85 Coen Vermeltfoort (Rabobank) 00:17:03
ned NED 86 Rick Flens (Rabobank) 00:17:28
fra FRA 87 Damien Gaudin (Europcar) 00:18:37
aus AUS 88 Jonathan Clarke (UnitedHealthcare Presented By Maxxis) 00:22:34

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