The last monument of the year is raced in the Autumn instead of the Spring. Il Lombardia is the last important race of the season and one that is often decided more according to the fitness levels of the riders than to their overall quality. Therefore, surprises are quite common in the final results. This year's race will again feature the climbs to the Valico di Valcava, the Muro di Sormano, Madonna del Ghisallo. The climb where the race will most likely be decided will be Villa Vergano. It has been often said that with this route the flat between the Ghisallo and Villa Vergano kills the options of attacks from far away.
Even though surprises are quite common the last two winners are very renowned in the world of cycling: Jelle Vanendert and Bauke Mollema. Damiano Cunego is the only Italian winner so far and it looks rather unlikely that he or another Italian takes the win this year. The Dutch riders will most likely have the edge according to the bookies. Overall, today's race will be really tough and only the best riders in the field will be able to have a go at the win as it would be very unlikely for a break to take the win.
Favorites:
- Robert Gesink (Ag2r - La Mondiale): Robert Gesink arrived in Italy for Il Lombardia after a season that has had ups and downs and with only a very good race to remember in the Criterium du Dauphine, where he was 2nd overall. His campaign in the Grand Tours was unremarkable but he still has this race and the Tour de Beijing to get something better out of the season. He has only raced the TTT in the World Championships since the Vuelta a España so his fitness is unknown.
- Laurens Ten Dam (Team Cannondale - Garmin): Il Lombardia will be the last race of the season for the Dutch climber, who won the Giro d'Italia earlier in the season, completing a really good race. He is 3rd in the World Tour rankings and could even finish 2nd if he wins in Lecco. He is a climber that can handle the hills as well and can do hard attacks so he could well win attacking in the short but steep Villa Vergano.
- Frank Schleck (Etixx - Quickstep): Frank Schleck will arrive in Lombardy less than 1 month after getting his first podium in a Grand Tour. The Etixx rider had many times failed in trying to climb on the podium but managed to do it in a race that he was not considered a favorite. That result will give him a lot of confidence in himself that he will try to translate in a strong performance in Il Lombardia.
- David Lopez (Euskaltel - Euskadi): Lopez fell short of winning the Italian race last year and will be looking to add his first monument to his palmares in a year when he managed to get his first Grand Tour win and will see him take the 1st position in the World Tour rankings. Nevertheless, he already stated that he is no longer feeling as fresh as he was in the Vuelta and the big fight that he had to endure might take a toll on him.
Other riders with a chance are Bauke Mollema and Andy Schleck (Vacansoleil - DMC), Jelle Vanendert (Lotto - Soudal), Peter Stetina (BMC Racing Team), Cadel Evans (Movistar Team) and Juanjo Cobo (HTC - Highroad).
The route of the Giro di Lombardia is pretty scary. There will be 4 major climbs: the Valico di Valcava, Muro di Sormano, Madonna del Ghisallo and the decisive Villa Vergano. The key point of the race could be the Muro di Sormano with its extreme gradients but being 82 kilometers from the finish line makes it less of a threat. On the other hand, Villa Vergano has its top a bit less than 10 kilometers from the finish line in Lecco so the group or rider that comes out on top will most likely fight for the win.
The Valico di Valcava is clearly a HC climb but it will serve only to strip the riders of energy as it is 159 kilometers from the finish line. The early break was settled in front, only 4 riders in it: Alejandro Valverde (Cofidis), Ilnur Zakarin (Tinkoff), Ramunas Navardauskas (IAM) and Sonny Colbrelli (LottoNL). They had built a gap of 6' 30'' on the bunch. Several teams were setting a pace, including Trek, Vacansoleil and Katusha but none seemed too worried about the group ahead.
The riders tackled the descent of Valcava easily and there were no crashes. The next difficulty of the day was the easiest, the Colle Brianza. With 114 kilometers to go, less than half of the day remaining, they had a gap of 7' 15''. The gap was already decreasing as a few more important riders were leading, like Tony Martin, Hubert Dupont and Jurgen van den Broeck. There was also quite a bit of wind that might affect the climb to the Colma di Sormano.
The wind was not that hard as the riders hit the Muro di Sormano. The group of 4 still had a gap of 5 minutes as they started the climb but the gap was decreasing fast in the tough sloped. Trek was leading the peloton as they entered the toughest part of the climb but they were relieved by Johan Vansummeren first, riding for HTC, and Damiano Caruso next, for Cannondale. It was weird that Caruso was riding very hard in the climb as his leader, Laurens Ten Dam, was quite far behind in the group.
The descent of the Colma di Sormano and the flat before the climb to Madonna del Ghisallo were pretty interesting as a group including Laurens Ten Dam and Cadel Evans were dropped at the last part of the Muro di Sormano. However, their teams worked a lot to bring them back in the main group. The climb to the Ghisallo started with a gap of only 2' 20'' for the early break and a group of around 100 riders chasing. Cannondale started to work at the front straight away with Jurgen van den Broeck and Francesco Gavazzi while Ten Dam was much closer to the front.
Juanjo Cobo was the first among the favorites for the win to attack. He did it in the first part of the climb, with 50 kilometers to go. The Spaniard managed to bridge the gap to the break but they were eventually reeled back in close to the top of the climb as Ag2r and Quickstep increased the pace considerably. Robert Gesink and Vincenzo Nibali also tried to attack before the top of the climb but they were not going anywhere. There was a lot of flat before the last climb of the day and any attack was hopeless.
Dries Devenyns attacked in the descent of the Madonna del Ghisallo, as hopeless as that might be, and opened a gap that grew up to 50 seconds. He held on for a good while and with 20 kilometers to go Bjorn Leukemans joined him at the front of the race. Leukemans, in his first race without the rainbow jersey, had jumped from the group of the favorites a few kilometers before. They had 30 seconds over the group of the favorites, where around 45 riders survived and where riders were being dropped even in the flat.
Dries Devenyns and Bjorn Leukemans did not go far in their attempt and by the time the group reached the bottom of the climb to Villa Vergano they had been reeled back in. Laurens Ten Dam was the first to launch an attack but it had to be Jelle Vanendert who attacked more seriously. The Belgian is probably the best rider in classics. His attacked was followed by Ten Dam, Greg van Avermaet, Frank Schleck and Juanjo Cobo. The group had not split yet with 1.5 kilometers to climb but it could do it any second.
Laurens Ten Dam was first at the top of the climb to Villa Vergano with only a couple of meters over Jelle Vanendert, Greg van Avermaet and Frank Schleck. The 4 of them started the descent together with 9 kilometers to the finish line in Lecco. They had 35 seconds over another 4 riders: Cadel Evans, Marco Pinotti, Juanjo Cobo and David Lopez. Meanwhile, a further group of 8 was behind including Philippe Gilbert, Robert Gesink and Emanuele Sella. The race was completely broken at the top, the 240 kilometers taking a toll on the riders.
Greg van Avermaet was leading the group with Jelle Vanendert behind as they were getting close to the outskirts of Lecco. They should be the ones with a better shot at the win in a sprint in the group and with 3 kilometers to go it looked that was going to be the case. The chasers had had no understanding as the two chasing groups merged in the descent. Vincenzo Nibali took the chance to attack and was the lonely chaser, 35 seconds behind.
Vincenzo Nibali managed to get to the front group in the last kilometer as the front group riders were playing cat and mouse. However, as soon as the final sprint started it was clear that he would not hold on with them. With 600 meters to go it was Greg van Avermaet leading the way with Frank Schleck and Laurens Ten Dam following very close. Jelle Vanendert seemed to have used too much energy in the race and looked out of the race for the win as soon as the sprint started.
Frank Schleck wins in Lecco! The Etixx rider has finished his season in style as he gets the first monument in his career and that comes only weeks after he got the podium in the Vuelta a España. In the end he was not the fastest sprinter on paper but it was enough to see off the others in the group. Laurens Ten Dam grabbed the second place in the podium and Greg van Avermaet was the surprising 3rd rider in the podium. In the end Jelle Vanendert and Vincenzo Nibali completed the top 5.
It is said that the Giro di Lombardia is the only monument that the Grand Tour riders can win and once again this was true. Frank Schleck only had a podium in the Liege - Bastogne - Liege in a monument before today's win. Nevertheless, the most surprising rider in the podium was Greg van Avermaet. The race was deemed to have too many mountains for the liking of the Belgian but he finally managed to hold on at the Ghisallo and once in Villa Vergano he was as much as a favorite as others.
The season is set to finish with what is probably the lowest profile race of the season. The Tour of Beijing is not a popular destination among the riders and its HC classification means that many of the important riders skip the event. The route is unchanged since last year and the general classification will be decided most likely at the top of the Miaofeng Mountain. However, the mountain is not that hard and it would not be unthinkable to have a rather big group make it to the top. Otherwise, the race is a party for the sprinters and many of the best have come to Beijing.
In terms of the past winners, Peter Stetina would be the defending champion had he decided to fly to Asia. The most recent winner at the start will be Andy Schleck, who is in dire need of a good result to justify his season. A podium would be the only result that would more or less save the season for him. Other than the favorites, Jelle Vanendert has also come to China but he has already played down his options in the race. He could well try to disrupt the sprint in one of the hills close to the finish rather than going for the GC.
Favorites:
- Robert Gesink (Ag2r - La Mondiale): Robert Gesink was one of the favorites in the Giro di Lombardia but in the end he was nowhere to be seen. It was not the best of his races. He should be one of the favorites again in the Chinese race as there are not that many good climbers and a few of those that are in the race are not in their best shape any more. The only question mark comes from the fact that the race could be decided on the bonus seconds at the Miaofeng Mountain and he is not the best of the finishers.
- Juanjo Cobo (HTC - Highroad): The fact that Cobo is named as one of the favorites should give a hint with regards to the quality of the riders in the race. The Spaniard is one of the few riders that has stated that he made the race a target. HTC has many climbers available and they have to target any race that has mountains all for them to have targets in the season. The fact that the mountain stage is a one off climb in a rather short stage should increase his chances.
- Mathias Frank (IAM Cycling): Mathias Frank was one of the starts of the first part of the season with several good results such as the overall win in the Tour de Suisse and a podium at the Tirreno - Adriatico. However, the Swiss has not done much since he won in his home country. Nevertheless, any kind of form that he has in China might see him fight for the podium or even the overall win.
- Frank Schleck (Etixx - Quickstep): The most successful of the Schleck brothers is probably the rider with a better shape going into the final race of the season. His win last week at the Giro di Lombardia should put him as top favorite for the race. However, he stated that he was starting to feel the pain of a very long late season as he also got a podium in the Vuelta a España. On his favor, he is probably the fastest rider in an uphill finish at Miaofeng Mountain.
Other riders with a shot at the podium are Hubert Dupont (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Andy Schleck (Vacansoleil - DMC), Jose Serpa (Ag2r - La Mondiale), Xavi Tondo (Lampre - Merida), Robert Kiserlovski and Jelle Vanendert (Lotto - Soudal).
Among the sprinters, the best in the race are Marcel Kittel (Astana Pro Team), Ben Swift (Vacansoleil - DMC), Lloyd Mondory (Etixx - Quickstep), Kenny van Hummel (LottoNL - Jumbo), Alexander Kristoff (Euskaltel - Euskadi) and Andre Greipel (Lotto - Soudal).
The Tour of Beijing starts with a very straightforward stage between Shunyi and Huairou. The profile of the stage is really flat but there will be a categorized climb halfway through the stage to award the first mountain's jersey. Nevertheless, the stage will be one for the sprinters, as will be many in this race. That is the reason for quite a few of the sprinters to come to China this late in the season. The wind could be the only disruption in the stage.
There was quite a bit of a fight to catch the break of the day. The tailwind in the first part of the stage helped the pace to be really fast and the peloton was close to breaking in 2 at some point. The break had 5 riders: Maarten Tjallingii (Quickstep), Jonas van Genechten (Giant), Ilnur Zakarin (Tinkoff), Michael Valgren (Sky) and Sergey Chernetskiy (Vacansoleil). The Giant rider was the first at the top of the KoM sprint in Shang Pu Zi and would grab the first mountain's jersey. Meanwhile, the peloton trailed 5' 15'' behind.
The second intermediate sprint of the day was placed in Liu Jia Dian, 77 kilometers from the finish line. There was again a fight between the sprinters and Marcel Kittel came out on top ahead of Alexander Kristoff and Ben Swift. The gap to the break shrunk quite a bit to 3' 30'', which meant that their chances of making it to the finish line were very slim. A lot of teams were interested in not allowing a break to make it to the finish line.
Maarten Tjallingii attacked from the break within the last 12 kilometers and with 9 to go he still had 35 seconds over the bunch. Ag2r had been chasing for a long while not to let a break win even though they have no sprinter in the race, to keep the GC close. Euskaltel, LottoNL and Astana were the teams with sprinters that were most interested in bringing the back. The big avenues close to the finish line should favor the peloton and guarantee a mass sprint.
Maarten Tjallingii did not go far and the peloton caught him swiftly. The spinrt trains started to form with 3 kilometers to go as LottoNL took the lead of the peloton with Bernhard Eisel ready to work for Kenny van Hummel. Mark Renshaw was right behind the Dutch. Meanwhile, the Astana train was close by. Luca Paolini would be the last man working for Marcel Kittel, who had Elia Viviani on his wheel. Other sprinters well positioned were Alexander Kristoff, Giacomo Nizzolo and Lloyd Mondory. The bad news came from a crash that affected Tom Boonen and Hubert Dupont. A few other riders fell and Dupont and Joaquim Rodriguez had to retire from the race, leaving Euskaltel with only 5 riders.
Bernhard Eisel did a perfect lead-out for Kenny van Hummel as they lead the race with 1 kilometer to go. The only problem for him was that he was carrying Mark Renshaw and Alexander Kristoff right behind. On the right hand side of the road Astana's train had fallen a bit behind but one could not yet discard Marcel Kittel for the win. Giacomo Nizzolo had started the final sprint from far out and he seemed a bit too optimistic. A bit further behind was Andre Greipel, who had not found a good wheel to follow.
Kenny van Hummel was leading the final sprint with 600 meters remaining but today's sprint was a very close affair as Mark Renshaw and Giacomo Nizzolo were really close to the front. Marcel Kittel had started the sprint a bit back but he was gaining on the leaders and could not be discarded for the win. Elia Viviani also seemed within shot of the win as there was not much to choose between the riders at the front.
Mark Renshaw wins in Huairou! The Australian managed to grab the win in a very close finish as can be seen in the picture. The difference between the 3 first riders was about a wheel. This is the second win for Renshaw this season after he won at home in the Tour Down Under. Elia Viviani arrived second and was probably the fastest of the sprinters. However, the fact that he was not that well positioned at the start of the sprint did not help him.
Kenny van Hummel was 3rd, ahead of Marcel Kittel and Ben Swift. They will still have a few more opportunities to shine in the rest of the race as there are 4 stages in the Tour of Beijing that will most likely finish in a mass sprint. The team with the worst luck today was Euskaltel as they lost Hubert Dupont and Joaquim Rodriguez in a crash with about 5 kilometers to go. That leaves them without a rider for the GC, which takes away their options to grab the lead in the World Tour rankings from Lotto.
The second stage will be another one for the sprinters. There will be 4 categorized climbs in the day but the closest to the finish line, Yan Shan Tian Chi, is 53 kilometers from the finish line. It would be very unlikely that the peloton allows a break to make it to the finish line. The most interesting part of the stage might be the first 25 kilometers as the riders climb from the flat area of Beijing towards the mountains to the North of the city.
The break of the day had already taken shape at the second climb of the day, Fenshuiling. A group of 4 riders formed the break: Sylvain Chavanel (Giant), Nick Nuyens (BMC), Diego Ulissi (Lampre) and Ramunas Navardauskas (IAM). Nuyens was the first at the top of the climb. Astana, Euskaltel and LottoNL were setting the pace in the peloton but they had already allowed the break to get a good lead of 3' 30''. The pace in the bunch was quite easy.
The peloton was starting to control the gap halfway through the stage. At the climb to Cang Mi Gu Dao, with 115 kilometers to go, the gap had grown to 6' 40''. Steven Kruijswijk and Dani Moreno were leading the main bunch and the pace was high enough to start to reduce the gap. Diego Ulissi was the 1st at the top of the climb but Nick Nuyens was the provisional leader of the KoM classification at that point. The break was a bit stronger than expected by the peloton as all of them were quite good on the flat.
The last climb of the day was the Yan Shan Tian Chi, which was 53 kilometers from the finish line. Nick Nuyens was quickest than Diego Ulissi at the top of the climb and will wear the mountain's jersey tomorrow. The riders from the break were holding on quite well and the gap had only been reduced to 3 minutes. However, it still seemed unlikely that they would make it to the finish line. Discovery had taken over the front of the pack with Philippe Deignan. They did not want to let go of Mark Renshaw's lead.
The break made the peloton suffer to catch them as the tailwinds for a lot of kilometers made it more difficult to catch them back. With 10 kilometers to go the gap was still 30 seconds but the road had changed direction and their hopes of getting to the finish were slim. Astana and LottoNL were the teams leading the chase at that point and the peloton was very stretched. Among those that lost contact with the pack was Jurgen van den Broeck, who had crashed at the beginning of the stage and was suffering.
Astana was leading the peloton with 3 kilometers to go once the break was finally reeled back in. There were no proper trains as LottoNL tried to set up one but did not really work. Luca Paolini was leading Marcel Kittel and Elia Viviani was sitting on his wheel. Among those following were Ben Swift and Alexander Kristoff. Kenny van Hummel had been a victim of the fallout of his team's train and was quite far from to front of the race. The sensation of the Vuelta was not in the best shape here in Beijing.
Luca Paolini could not drive the peloton for long and that left Marcel Kittel exposed at the front of the pack way before the last kilometer. The German was effectively leading out other sprinters like Elia Viviani, Ben Swift, Andre Greipel and Alexander Kristoff. There was a strong headwind in the final straight so the sprinters should wait a long time to start the final sprint. The tows would be very important.
Marcel Kittel was leading the sprint with 600 meters to go but Elia Viviani had emerged from his wheel in the points' jersey and was starting to gain on him. Ben Swift also looked threatening on the other side of Kittel. The others seemed a bit too far behind to be contenders for the win, including Andre Greipel and Alexander Kristoff, who were following them. Mark Renshaw was also in the mix but way too far back from the front.
Alexander Kristoff wins in Yanqing! It looked unlikely that Kristoff won the stage as he was far from the front with 600 meters to go but the head-wind made the final part of the sprint very tough and in the end he ended up narrowly beating Mark Renshaw. That is the 6th win of the year for the Norwegian, who is unlikely to reach 9 like he did last year but confirms that he is one of the top sprinters in the World. Renshaw also proved he is in good shape for the race and could fight for the stages.
Elia Viviani had to settle for 3rd even if it looked like he could win the stage at some point. The top 5 was completed by Kenny van Hummel and Ben Swift. It was a difficult stage today, much more than what it seemed on paper. Tomorrow the stage will also have a few climbs and the last of those will be much closer to the finish line. A mass sprint is expected but it will probably be harder for the purest sprinters to be ahead.
Euskaltel - Euskadi has been one of the sensations of the year as they have wins in all sorts of races. They have been fast to move in the market and soon renewed the commitments of their leaders, David Lopez and Alexander Kristoff for 2 and 3 years respectively. Given their age that might be one of the last good contracts they sign. They have also signed Elia Viviani from Cannondale to improve their sprint train.
Lotto - Soudal looks close to winning the World Tour classification for a 2nd year in a row. They have also changed a bit their roster. Most notably, Cadel Evans will replace Robert Kiserlovski as the leader of the team for Grand Tours. The Austrlian had a few good years at Movistar but having a team as strong as Lotto behind might give him a better shot. Lotto has also renewed Bjorn Leukemans for 3 more seasons. The Belgian is the best cobbles rider in the World and looks set to continue that way.
One of the most surprising transfers in the autumn has been the one taking Simone Ponzi to LottoNL - Jumbo. The Dutch team was looking for a leader but it was surprising that they chose Ponzi given the good end of season of Kenny van Hummel. It seems that the team will change to become a team of sprinters mainly instead of climbers. The characteristics of the two sprinters are quite different so they should not clash too much.
Movistar Team was quick to replace the departing Cadel Evans and Michele Scarponi. Emanuele Sella was the chosen rider by the Spanish team, which has been a bit underwhelming for their fans. It looks difficult for them to repeat a season as good as the one they had this year although they will keep the World Champion with them next year. Sella took the win the Tirreno - Adriatico this year and is quite good in the hilly races but it is to be seen who will be the leader in the mountains.
The third stage is the most unclear of the Tour of Beijijng. On paper it should be another stage for the sprinters but there are several climbs along the way and the last climb, Huang Tu Liang, is only 11 kilometers from the finish line. However, that last climb is not hard enough to drop all of the sprinters and the rest are too far from the finish line. It will be interesting to see how hard some of the teams make the stage in order to eliminate other riders.
The start of the stage was quite bumpy with three categorized climbs before the descent towards Beijing. The break of the day had 6 riders, including Nick Nuyens (BMC), Maarten Tjallingii (Quickstep), Moreno Moser (Sky), Stefan Schumacher (HTC) and Sebastian Langeveld (Movistar). At the climb to Sha Ling, 106 kilometers from the finish line, they had a gap of 4' 15'' over the bunch. Moreno Moser and Nick Nuyens were fighting hard over the KoM points and the Italian was winning the battle so far over the leader of the classification.
Si Hai was the hardest climb of the day, a 1st category climb. Ben Hermans and Sylvain Chavanel jumped from the peloton to grab a few KoM points, although it seemed that either Nick Nuyens or Moreno Moser were going to take enough points today. Discovery had started to chase in the flat between the climbs, especially with Taylor Phinney. They started to close the gap, which was at 4 minutes at the top. Other teams should help because the break was stronger than what the teams of the sprinters had hoped for.
Moreno Moser was the first again in the climb to Cang Mi Gu Dao, the 2nd category climb hat was 42 kilometers to the finish line. Nick Nuyens punctured a tyre at the start of the climb and that brought Moser within 1 point of the lead. The peloton was still chasing hard and the gap was down to 2' 30''. Astana had joined the chase and Grega Bole led the group at the top. The gap was already small enough that they did not have high hopes of making it to the finish.
LottoNL and Astana were chasing with riders like Tom Danielson, Andreas Kloden and Grega Bole at the last climb of the day but they were still losing 1 minute to the front of the race. Moreno Moser and Maarten Tjallingii had attacked from the break and with only 11 kilometers to go they had hopes of making it to the finish. However, most of the sprinters were quite close to the front of the pack so their teams would surely work hard to bring them back.
The final kilometers were too much for the early break riders and they were eventually caught back with 5 kilometers to go. Astana was the only team that managed to form a sprint train. Luca Paolini was going to lead Marcel Kittel in the final sprint. Elia Viviani was well positioned right behind the German. Moreno Hofland took Kenny van Hummel to the front of the pack but dropped behind afterwards. Among the other sprinters close to the front we could see Lloyd Mondory, Andre Greipel and Jurgen Roelandts.
Luca Paolini did a much better lead out today and he was leaving Marcel Kittel in a great position ahead of the last kilometer of the stage. The German was followed by Elia Viviani and Andre Greipel but the peloton was very stretched and not many riders seemed in position to fight for the win. Among those that were too far back were Ben Swift, Alexander Kristoff and Mark Renshaw. Some sprinters will probably pay for the efforts in the climbs in the final effort.
Marcel Kittel was really fast in the early part of the sprint. With 600 meters to go Elia Viviani was the only rider that was trying to follow him. The Italian has been quite good so far in the race. Meanwhile, Andre Greipel was starting to fall back and the rest of the sprinters were too far behind. Jurgen Roelandts was leading the chase of the rest of the group but the speed of Kittel was brutal so far. If Astana takes the win Luca Paolini had much to say.
Marcel Kittel wins in Qianjiadian! The German was very strong in the final sprint and gave no options to the rest of the riders. This is his 4th win of the season. This is much closer to his pre-season target of being among the sprinters with the most wins. Elia Viviani was 2nd but was never close to taking the win. The Cannondale rider has already signed for Euskaltel for 2017 but he is very keen on getting a win before the end of the season.
The 3rd position went to Lloyd Mondory, who sprinted very well but was too far back. Kenny van Hummel and Jurgen Roelandts completed the top 5 of the stage. The rider that paid the earlier efforts was Andre Greipel. The European Champion used all his energies in getting through the climbs for nothing and did not even get a top 10 position in the end. The key stage of the race will be tomorrow, when the riders climb to Miaofeng Mountain.
Mark Renshaw is one of the sprinters for the future that already has a present. The Australian is only 25 years old, which is considerably younger than most of his rivals in the World Tour. He has only been around for 4 years, all of them enrolled in the Discovery Channel team. However, he is ending his contract at the end of the season and no one knows where he will end up in the following season. The fact that he has been the leader of the Tour of Beijing for 3 days should make his value go up considerably.
Renshaw's career in professional cycling started back in 2013. He joined the Discovery Channel team when it was one of the top teams in the World, which meant that his role was limited to being a domestique most of the time. Nevertheless, he managed to shine on his own and grabbed the win in the last stage of the Tour de Romandie, finishing in Geneve. Surely that result put him in the spotlight in the team and the managers considered him one of the rider to look for in the future.
His sporadic good performances continued during a couple of seasons, especially in the Paris - Nice. It seems to be the favorite race of the Australian as he got the best Young rider jersey in 2014 and a stage win in 2015. The end of last year was the key point in his career so far. The money problems in the Discovery Channel team meant that the team directors had to look for the leaders of the team within the current riders. The whole process finished with Mark Renshaw being awarded one of the leading positions in the team.
This season he proved that the choice by his team was the right one as he responded with a couple of stage wins, in the Tour Down Under and the Tour of Beijing. He was also really close to get a podium in the Milano - Sanremo, a monument that should fit very well his characteristics and that might be a target for him in the future. In the meantime, he has to sort his future out as it is unclear where he will race next season. Apart from Discovery Channel, Lotto - Soudal was also interested to bring him onboard.
