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The fastest sprint train in professional road cycling is now three separate locomotives, each determined to prove he’s No.1.
The Giro d’Italia will be the first time Australians Matt Goss and Mark Renshaw, and British rider Mark Cavendish, have ridden in the same Grand Tour since last year’s Tour de France.
Then, they were team-mates at HTC-Highroad which had an exceptional Tour.
Cavendish won five stages and the sprint classification as lead out man Renshaw and Goss worked the HTC-Highroad “train” to perfection for him at the sprint finishes.
But after HTC-Highroad folded at the end of last season, Goss joined new Australian team Orica-GreenEDGE, Renshaw went to Rabobank and Cavendish now fronts Team Sky.
Goss and Renshaw are now their new teams’ top sprinters, not lead-out men for someone else.
Although the stakes are high in a Grand Tour, they will also use the Giro which starts on Saturday to build form for the July Tour de France.
Orica-GreenEDGE team director Matt White said the sprinters will only ride the first fortnight of the three-week Giro and then pull out to prepare for the Tour.
“Sprinting is a lot about confidence … if you can get a few wins over the other ones here in May, it’s a good confidence thing going into July, isn’t it?,” White said.
“There is no other place in the world where you can prepare for the sprints as well as you can here.”
In the case of Cavendish and Goss, they will also be among the favourites for the Olympics road race in early August.
Circumstances mean Renshaw is unlikely to make the Australian team for the London Games and he would love to make a point to the national program by winning as many Giro and Tour stages as possible.
Renshaw won a stage of the Tour of Turkey earlier this month ahead of Goss, who had four second placings and took out the points classification.
“He (Goss) left the Tour of Turkey pretty frustrated, but hungry to turn that consistency into wins,” White said.
The Giro opens with three stages in Denmark from Saturday before the race transfers to Italy.
Sky, Rabobank and Orica-GreenEDGE all will all aim to have their sprinter in the pink leader’s jersey for the stage-four team time trial at Verona.
Goss and Renshaw will be among seven Australians riding the Giro.
Jack Bobridge and Goss’ main lead-out man Brett Lancaster are also on the Orica-GreenEDGE roster, while Graeme Brown will be a support rider for Renshaw at Rabobank.
Adam Hansen (Lotto Belisol) and Luke Roberts (Saxo Bank) are the other Australians on the start list.
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