Jul 17

Cycling News Blog 6

Written by Mark Renshaw.

Abandoning the Tour

Why you never want to leave the grand boucle

Coming into the Tour de France you expect that you're going to crash once or twice - just because it's a numbers game but this year in terms of crashes, I've never seen anything like it.

That was the fifth time I've ridden the Tour and the bunch was extremely nervous. I can't put on a finger on the reason or reasons why we have seen so many crashes but the moment someone would touch the brakes at the front of the bunch, it would ricochet back through and at the end, everyone would be locking up their brakes and crashing.

I said a while back that maybe a few less teams need to be eligible for the Tour and given what's occurred over the last two weeks, it's only cemented that thought for me.

I had four decent crashes, on top of the pile-ups which don't really hurt. One day, I had three in a row and the day before that I'd been involved in the big pile up during the run into the sprint with Cav, Farrar and some other top sprinters.

In the end, I'd ridden four or five days with just one leg really working so I was able to duck and weave and stay out of trouble until I hit the mountains. The first day we hit the mountains, I was in big trouble so I knew whatever was ahead was going to be worse because the next day was starting uphill. My body just never had the chance to recover. You cannot hide for too long in the Tour.

So, there was not much positive for me to take out of this Tour de France. Trust me; you do try to look for any upside. The first sprint day I didn't get a chance to be in the mix because the first few days are generally pretty hard to judge, and I got it wrong.

The Tour is without doubt the hardest race to abandon because it's not something that you want to do. The first few days you try to avoid it but given the amount of attention that is on it, especially in this part of the world, it's impossible to escape it.

I need some more tests just to be doubly sure there's nothing major wrong and I'm hoping everything will be okay. I really think it comes down to the need for a week's rest for all the swelling to go down and recover properly.

While it's hard to find any positives out of my own race, it was great to see Luis León Sánchez get the win in Sunday. It has been a slow start to the Tour for Rabobank so we're pretty lucky that Sánchez is the quality rider that he is. He saved the Tour this year; you can count on him to win a stage each year. He's a great guy and I think the team was really proud to have him there.

All going well, I'll be back for the Eneco Tour, Vattenfall Cyclassics, GP Plouay and a couple other races at the end of the year. Paris-Bruxelles is a good objective as well. I'm not focussed on the Worlds; the course is not to my strengths. Now I just need to try and save my season! There's definitely pressure within the team because Rabobank just hasn't had the season that was expected. There wasn't a huge focus on what I could do in the Tour, but that may change now with what I have coming up.

I am looking forward to getting back on the bike soon and finishing off the season with some wins!

Jul 01

Tour de France, 2012

Written by Mark Renshaw.

Stage 1

I said I would try to do a small write up each few days with some moment's from inside the bunch.

Today's stage was a pretty easy day as far as efforts go for myself. If there was a scale out of 10 for how nervous it was I can pretty easily say it was was 9.5 maybe even a tad higher.

We had one rider in the team crash today, Luis Leon. He seems to be ok but we won't know for sure how sore he will be until tomorrow when we roll out for the second stage.

Here are some moments from today today that caught my attention.

So I guess todays "Winning" moment was pretty easy to pick, I wasn't there to see it but I've seen the finish at least ten times on the TV now. Peter Sagan wraps this up, first time he turns up at the Tour and pops off the first stage. Nice ride and congratulations! He also won yesterday's "Poo my Pants award"

Today's Poo my pants has to be given to Daryl Impey, with 3km to go he hit a big hole, lost his right hand off the bars and held it upright. Skill or luck- I don't care! He did well to hold it up and both myself and Bauke Mollema thank him for that.

Today's Funny moment wasn’t really a moment, it was the continuous laugh of guys taking the piss out of our new helmets from Giro. They are laughing now, but soon everyone will be wearing something like them ;-) Style pays the price when watts are too be saved!

I think the random moment must go to the three Astana girls with yellow bra's and body paint at the start and finish today. Random, but good to see people mixing it up at the tour!

Enjoy the Tour, I hope tomorrow we have a nice fast sprint to report on.

Ciao

Mark

Jun 26

Cycling News Blog 5

Written by Mark Renshaw.

Mark on his final preparations for the Tour de France

It's Tour time!

With less than a week until the 2012 Tour de France begins in Liege, it's all about staying focussed. I'm still spending time at altitude and I will head to Belgium on Wednesday night. The two days before the Grand Depart should just be some recon of the prologue and the first stage.

Because it is the biggest race of the year, now is about trying to switch on 100 per cent. All the little one percenters – diet, gym, stretching and massage – in the two weeks leading up to the Grand Depart is the most important thing I'll do all season. It's not something I can do all year; you have to pick and choose when that time is. If there's any extra weight to trim, and as a sprinter you can't really race super-light all year, it's time to focus on doing that. Everyone gets tired as the weeks go on so the fresher you are every day – whether it's because you're a little bit lighter – it can make a little bit of a difference.

If there's one thing that I really enjoy about the Tour is that it's the best organised race of the lot. The transfers are never long. There's a tradition that's followed, you do the Alps or the Pyrenees, you can rely on certain sprint and time trial stages – the layout of the Tour is the best in the world and for that reason, it will always be that much bigger than the Vuelta or the Giro, along with being the most popular race.

The one thing I don't look forward to is knowing that you're racing 197 other cyclists that are in the best form that they possibly can be. Everybody wants to do something so it becomes so hard to get a result. It's another reason why it's the best race in the world.

I managed two seconds and a third in my last race before the Tour, Ster ZLM Toer and it was a really good boost for my confidence. There were only a few guys missing from the race: Petacchi, Farrar and Goss so I'm definitely capable of running podiums, if not winning stages once we roll around to the Tour. I just need to keep improving and stay healthy.

This will be the second year where we have the intermediate sprint and I can assure you, we utilised a lot of energy there in 2011 so it will be interesting to see who really targets them for the green jersey. I've already seen that Greipel said that he won't, along with a few others. I think it's really going to come down to who shows their cards early. I think Sagan will and you'll see two or three teams with lead outs and then the rest will freestyle in and limit their loses each day. It's such a hard competition to win.

If I had to pick a top three for the points classification, I'd go with Sagan, Cavendish and Griepel. There's no way I'd try and predict their order though! Sagan will be scoring points in the intermediate sprints on the days that are quite hard, after climbs and so on, but I think it's going to be quite hard for him to be in the mix on the pure sprint stages.

As for my own ambitions, to be honest I'm not too sure how I'll approach it. Each day where there's a sprint I'll give it 100 per cent to try and win and then it's about seeing how the legs have recovered in order to do the intermediate sprints. It could be an easier way to pick up some points compared to the finish. After the first week, I'll assess the situation.

Rabobank has selected a really strong climbing team so I'm going to be largely on my own. I may get some help from Maarten Tjallingii and Maarten Wijnants up until about three or four kilometers to go – from there I'll be fending for myself. It's going to be tough but on the other side of the coin I now know what I have to do.

Jun 15

Renshaw Racing

Written by Kristina Renshaw.

RENSHAW RACING

Hi Everyone,

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Together we bring you the Renshaw Racing clothing range.

Check out the range at www.aqtocycling.com today and jump on for the ride.

Cheers

Mark

Jun 14

Cycling News Blog 4

Written by Mark Renshaw.

The final push towards the Tour de France

Mark on learning from the Giro

My next race starts on Thursday, Ster ZLM Tour and I’m hoping to be in the mix. I’ve been doing a lot of work on my sprinting and climbing lately. There’s always a couple of hard stages there for a Gilbert style rider but i am hoping for a couple of sprint chances also.

I won’t be doing a lot else in the lead up to the Tour, and I’ve had a few stints up at altitude along with plenty of training behind the scooter. Off the back of the Giro and then with this week’s race I think my preparation for the Tour will be quite solid.

I took a lot from the Giro. Apart from the Tour of Turkey it was the first race where I got some consecutive sprints which allowed me to analyse how I was going and then try and change things the next day. If there was a recurring theme, it was that I was always two or three positions too far back – that really showed that positioning is everything.

It looks like Rabobank will be taking a team for the Tour de France based on supporting Robert Gesink, Bauke Mollema and Steven Kruijswijk – throw Luis Leon Sanchez in the mix, along with a few guys to work and then hopefully I’ll get a chance to sprint. The team is yet to be confirmed but I’m working towards that goal of being at the start in Liege.

It will make it harder being on my own but on the other hand it is a lot easier – I know what I have to do. There will be less pressure on me to win with the team heading to the Tour with big objectives.

Having a look at where some of the other sprinters are at, Greipel especially looks like he is going really well and is winning plenty of races. Lotto Belisol have got their lead out dialled in. Petacchi is also looking good. There are rumours that Cav won’t ride the Tour but I think he’ll be there. His support will be limited – probably Edvald Boasson Hagen, and Bernhard Eisel and that’s about all. In saying that, it’s probably all he needs. If there’s a catch, it will be that he won’t be used to riding so far back in the bunch, in the Highroad days the team was always patrolling the front, especially on the sprint stages. There is a risk with that of course, the further back you are the more chance of something going wrong. A lot of the work is going to be lumped on teams like Argos Shimano, Orica-Greenedge and Lotto Belisol to bring back any breakaways, because I can’t see Sky putting anyone on the front on a sprint stage.

I also caught up with Lance Armstrong in recent weeks; he’s back on the Côte d'Azur. We used to train togeither sometimes when he based himself here. It’s something we’ve done more in recent years given he was so singularly focussed before; he couldn’t really be training with Mark Renshaw when he had a Tour to win! It will be really interesting to see if he can win the Hawaiian Ironman, I know I couldn’t run to the bakery! He’s really motivated and catching up with him for a ride is always fun – there’s always a lot to talk about.

One topic that got a bit of airtime is the GC battle at the Tour and on paper, it’s certainly looking like a two-man battle. We all know that anything can happen but if Cadel Evans and Brad Wiggins can hold themselves upright, it will definitely be those two fighting for victory. As for what’s going on at RadioShack, I think a bit of a game is being played with the media. There’s always something each and every year. It’s the biggest goal of the year for the Schleck’s so I don’t see why Andy and Frank won’t be going well.

May 09

Cycling News Blog 3

Written by Mark Renshaw.

It’s time for Rabobank to deliver a sprint win

Mark on the changing sprint game, Ferrari and the TTT

It's been an interesting Giro so far. We may have been in Denmark but realistically, the finishes were what you come to expect from the Giro, particularly yesterday with the circuit at the end of the stage – lots of corners and definitely hectic.

Starting with the prologue, personally I took it a little bit easy just to save my legs for the first two road stages. It was decided that for stage 2 the team would pull for Theo. We tried to set the sprint up for him but unfortunately, he had William Bonnet come underneath and force him wide therefore underlapping my wheel and crashing. I thought we may have been going too fast for the corner so there wasn't much I could do other then break slightly. I was still happy to finish sixth. I had 50 meters to change my mindset and come up with a plan. In the end I decided to wait, then try and follow – at one point I had a gap on the right and I should have gone – so I paid the price and got stuck in the wheels. I was happy to still finish in the top 10 after changing my mindset within two seconds of Theo's crash.

The stage 3 wash-up has had its fair share of headlines but I think the UCI really need to look at sprinting. Ferrari's move was kamikaze and very bad on his behalf. The penalties need to be stricter. The relegation wasn't enough. I got made an example of a few years ago in the Tour de France. This was a real chance for the UCI to take a stand against those who deviate off their sprinting line. This year we've got more teams with more sprinters who are able to win. To have guys riding like that is just not acceptable.

What we saw in Denmark was a lot of the GC teams trying to stay in front because of the wind and the corners. While things generally improve over the final three kilometres of a stage like we had on Monday, we still have a lot of teams and a lot of riders taking risks. Everyone needs to concentrate on sprinting straight because at the moment, we just have too many kamikazes.

The one thing that has become increasingly obvious given the calibre of sprinters that we have at this first grand tour of the year, is that what Highroad managed to achieve in regards to their leadout is going to be seriously hard to replicate.

In 2011, we had the leadout down pat. Everybody knew their position and their role. Have a look at the results from stage 2 on Sunday and you have Cavendish, Goss and I all in the top six – that was the leadout for the Tour de France last year. It's obvious that what we had last year was exceptional. Since Highroad fell apart, there seems to be a lot less respect for each team during the leadout. On Monday we saw Sky try and take control and yet still there were riders coming underneath on the corners. When Highroad was in action, other teams would base their sprint on riding off the back of us and their tactic was to wait until the last minute. This year it's a case of going to the front and if it's detrimental to the team doing the lead out, then it doesn't seem to matter.

Heading into the team time trial on Wednesday, Rabobank has a strong team. If we finish in the top six, then we'll be pretty happy. I'm expecting Sky, Garmin and BMC to be the strongest.

There is another sprint stage for me coming up on Thursday and I'm in good shape. We're down in Italy now so the real Giro starts. We will have to see what the plan is. Theo fell quite hard and we've had other riders crash. One thing is for sure; in the next two sprint stages I'll have one chance for a result. Rabobank want to press ahead with both sprinters, they don't want to pick one. We just need to be honest with each other and go for the best rider on the day and we'll see how it pans out. On Monday I had Brown help me until two kilometers to go. It's hard when we can't get three or four guys together but hopefully we can after tomorrow.

We have made a big improvement at Rabobank the last few months with the sprint team. We now need to get it right and start delivering the results.

I hope the next week at the Giro is kind to us.