FOLLOWING a decade away from the green and gold and on the back of a gruelling Tour de France campaign, Bathurst rider Mark Renshaw’s sights are solely on Glasgow and Sunday’s Commonwealth Games road race.
Renshaw has happy memories of the Commonwealth Games, having been part of a world record-breaking gold medal win in the team pursuit at Manchester in 2002.
His last appearance for Australia came in 2004 at the Athens Olympics where he was fifth in the points race on the track.
There have been some ups and downs in the interim, including the disappointment of being left out of the World Championship road race team in 2011 on a course in Copenhagen which would have been ideally suited to him.
But on Sunday night all of that gets forgotten. While he stopped short of saying he can win or nominating a specific goal, Renshaw said that he feels ready to go after finishing the world’s biggest stage race less than a week ago.
“I’ve come out of the tour better than I have from any other Grand Tour I’ve ridden. I wasn’t sick and I didn’t have any massive crashes,” he told cyclingnews.com.
“I had a few opportunities and I was pretty happy with my performance.”
The course at Glasgow is expected to suit the sprinters and with that in mind, it looks like Renshaw could be the main man for the Australian team. Still, much depends on the way the race unfolds.
With no Isle of Man star Mark Cavendish in the race and the likes of Matt Goss not part of the Australian team, there are few contenders in the field with the sprinting credentials of the Bathurst rider.
However it goes, he is happy just to be in his nation’s colours.
“After such a long time away I’m very proud to have been selected to ride for Australia and wear the national kit,” he said.
“The Commonwealth Games are huge in Australia and if I can pull off a result I think that there will be a lot of happy people at home.
“Everyone is really excited and I’m looking forward to pulling on the national kit. As you can imagine, the Games are a lot bigger back home than they are in Monaco.
“Once I get to the athletes’ village, pick up the clothing and soak up some of the atmosphere, I think I’ll be pretty excited too.”
Allan Davis won gold in Delhi for the Australians and Renshaw believes that he has been selected due to both his experience and capabilities on the road as they look to defend it.
Former professional Bradley McGee is the national selector and the pair know each other well, having both been based in Monaco.
McGee was also part of the gold medal team in Manchester and the pair rode together at Pro Tour team FDJ.
“I think maybe the selectors can see that I have a lot of experience. I don’t have the same engine as some of the leaders in Australia, but with my experience it makes a big difference,” he said.
For a time it looked as though Renshaw would never race for the national team again after Athens.
He was overlooked on several occasions, including the sprint-friendly world championships in Copenhagen.
“That’s a touchy point and it made no sense,” Renshaw said.
“I went from winning stages with Mark Cavendish at the Tour of Britain one week before the worlds and I wasn’t selected.
“At the time they picked [Matt] Goss but they didn’t think that I was up to the challenge. I don’t know, they must have had a few thoughts, but it certainly hurt to not get selected.
“Now though, I think Australia with Bradley McGee, who isn’t associated with a pro team, has great knowledge of cycling and that change has probably helped.”
Sunday night’s road race begins at 9.01pm.
