Rabobank set to alter Tour focus with Renshaw

The 29-year-old will embark on a three-day trip to Amsterdam this week for meetings and a team presentation with the Dutch outfit he has signed a two-year deal with after the collapse of HTC-Highroad at the end of this year.

“When I started negotiating with Rabobank they said they were disappointed with the Tour they’ve had the last couple of years - they expected better results and they didn’t quite get them for one reason or not,” Renshaw told Cycling Central from the Port Macquarie Cycle Club Two Day.

“I think they won’t put so much emphasis on GC objectives for next year and I suppose they’ll give me a bit more of a free reign and maybe I get one, two guys to help out and hopefully get some more results.”

Renshaw has been working on speed in track training sessions during the pre-season as he prepares to make the switch from renowned lead-out specialist to major sprinter in 2012. That was part of his motivation for signing-on for this Saturday’s Clarence Street Cyclery Cup and NSW Keirin Championships as well as promoting the sport, which he says is doing it a bit tough in NSW at the moment.

“I’ve been doing a little bit of track – trying to improve the speed and sprint aspects of training,” he said.

“The track is a really good tool for activating some aspects of the sprint – the power, the start and the position. I was doing a bit of training and I thought I’d give a hand to Cycling NSW and try and help promote the Clarence Street Cup.”

Renshaw began his pre-season about 10 days earlier compared to previous years and says while he doesn’t have to, he has significantly changed the way he trains.

“It’s just because I finished that one week earlier basically and a big change next year so I obviously want to come out swinging pretty early on,” the Tour of Qatar champion said of his early start.

“I am trying to be a lot more focused on the little things and try and get back some of the explosiveness and I suppose sprinter aspects that I’ve probably lost over the last couple of years.”

Renshaw says he won’t entirely abandon his role as lead-out man next season but will be afforded more opportunities to have someone work for him. That requires a change in mentality with his new role making the Tour of Britain stage winner more of a marked man.

“I’ve been doing a lot of work on that side of things – working with the New South Wales Institute of Sport a little bit and on the track and just the way I’ve approached it with my trainer also,” Renshaw said.

“I think it will definitely be a big step but they’re all the things that I’ve already been looking at – just preparing for what’s ahead and the challenges.

“I’m trying to be a lot more focused on the little things, as I said, so if these challenges do arise, and they will, I should be able to handle them a little bit better.”

Renshaw plans to start the Australian national road race championships in January – although he maintains the fixed circuit does not suit him – and is gunning for a stage win at the Tour Down Under afterwards.

He wants to defend his title at the Tour of Qatar where he is set to ride against, instead of for, Mark Cavendish for the first time with the British world champion recently naming the February stage race as his first event for the 2012 season with Sky.

“I want to go back to Qatar and then I’ll probably head straight back to Europe and the next objectives would be, hopefully, Tirreno - Adriatico, Milan - San Remo, maybe Kuurne - Brussels - Kuurne and the classics – not so much Flanders or Roubaix but more Gent - Wevelgem and Scheldeprijs," Renshaw said.

The patriotic sprinter says he’d love to race both the Tour de France and the men’s Olympic Games road race, which starts six days after the Grand Tour, but admits he’s lost faith in the national team selection process after being controversially omitted from the Australian team for the world titles in Denmark this year, which saw three of his present and past trade team teammates (Cavendish, Matt Goss and Andre Greipel) place.

Selection for the Games will provide extra motivation in the pursuit of results next year. Renshaw did not race the August test event in London, which Cavendish won, due to commitments at the Eneco Tour but believes it, like worlds, will be a sprinter's race.

“I can only do what I do best and that’s try and win some races,” Renshaw said.

“They know what I can do as a lead-out so if I can prove myself as a sprinter then I don’t see why I shouldn’t get a spot.

"From what I heard (of the course), and from Cav, it's going to be a sprint. I told everyone it was going to be a sprint in Denmark and everyone said it wasn't but in the end it was."

Next season will see a number of sprinters have to assemble and learn to work quickly with new team lead-out trains with emerging and established fast-men distributed more evenly across the peloton in 2012.

Renshaw is confident his team has assembled a strong lead-out train for the Tour Down Under and the season in general.

“I’m sure there will be times when I ride for them (teammates) because that’s what I’ve done and what I’m good at but in saying that, hopefully, I definitely get a lot more chances now,” he said.

The Bathurst professional concedes though he will also have to be more versatile.

“I think we probably have a team that can do a lead-out but it’ll just be teaching the guys how to do it and committing for each other – that’s why HTC was always on top of its game.”

Renshaw’s transfer to Rabobank was a surprise with many tipping he would follow Cavendish, who was out of contract at year’s end, if HTC folded making Renshaw’s contract extension with the American-based outfit null and void.

“Once we found out they (HTC) were stopping it was a bit of a shock because before they announced that the team was stopping pretty much they’d asked me to re-sign for another two years,” he said.

“I definitely thought the team was going ahead when they were trying to extend my contract and then all of a sudden it was over. From there, it was just looking at my options.

“Cav, he didn’t sign for a long time but basically I had the offers on the table and Rabobank – the all-round offer was better, much better.

“In the end, I didn’t want to wait around all season to make a decision. Cav wasn’t sure what he was doing so … He was having a difficult time sorting out his contract and …Rabobank was by far the better option for the chance to take race wins.

“I discussed it with him. He was disappointed but he understood why I wanted to leave. He would have loved for me to stay that’s for sure but it’s just a shame that HTC had to end.”

Renshaw will make his WorldTour debut in his new colours at the January 15-22 Tour Down Under where he last won a stage and celebrated a stint in the leader’s jersey with the now defunct Credit Argicole in 2008.

“The Tour Down Under is obviously a big objective, I’ll go for stages,” he said.

“The overall I’m not too sure what will happen – they’ve changed the course a little bit. I’d be really happy just to pick up one stage and have a good start with Rabobank.”

Twitter: @SophieSmith86