🇦🇺 NEW SPORTS DIRECTOR: @Mark_Renshaw comes to Astana Qazaqstan Team as a Sports Director: 📰👉bit.ly/3SsR5sM #AstanaQazaqstanTeam 📷 @SprintCycling
"We’ve got everything we need" - Mark Renshaw confident he can aid Mark Cavendish in his quest for a history-making 35th Tour de France stage win
CyclingWednesday, 08 November 2023 at 22:00
Having postponed his retirement for one last year in the peloton, another chance at taking a history-making 35th stage win at the Tour de France is clearly the main goal for Mark Cavendish. The arrival of Mark Renshaw to the Astana Qazaqstan Team, seems to have boosted the Manx Missile's odds.
“Alexandre has put together the best possible scenario with the riders and trainers,” Renshaw told GCN after his reunion with Cavendish was confirmed by the announcement of his arrival at the Astana team as a sports director. “We’re not going to go wondering what could have been. We’ve got everything we need."
Having been a key figure in many of Cavendish's 34 previous stage wins in France as a leadout supremo, Renshaw's experience will surely prove vital. "For sure we need a little bit of luck because you always do but we have the leadout riders, we have the equipment, and I hope to help make a difference too," he explains. "You know no one thought that Mark would be second on a stage this year and I’m pretty sure that everyone had written him off already, so there’s always a chance.”
With the news of Renshaw joining Astana not coming as much of a surprise, the Australian explains why it is a well-matched partnership. “They already mentioned the idea to me before this year’s Tour de France. They were looking for a young English-speaking director. It wasn’t arranged first thing and I wanted to go back to the Tour de France this year and see how it was and I absolutely loved it. It was so good to be back and see so many people,” he says. “There are some really good guys and some really exciting riders. That all rolled into a ball that kept getting bigger. The biggest challenge was with the family because it’s a fair chunk of time being away."
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“I’m also keen to work with other guys, not just Mark. He knows what he needs to do and he doesn’t need me ringing him telling him what to do," Renshaw adds. "Selig, Max, Ballerini who has come from Quick-Step, and Mørkøv is probably the best leadout rider we’ve seen in the last eight years. It’s not really about me telling them what to do, it’s about me bringing them together as a team.”
“Cavendish, I know so well and I have some really exciting riders under me," he concludes. "Mark is one of them but then there’s Mørkøv from Quick-Step. Bol who I worked with at the Tour this year, Max Kanter and Rüdiger Selig. It’s going to be a really exciting project to see if I can squeeze a bit more out of Max and put him up one step higher and onto some podium places in bigger races.”
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