With three of the fastest men on the planet heading up their sprint department, the former HTC-Highroad were the team most feared when it came to a bunch finish.
Their lead out train was lethal and always appeared so much more organised than that of their rivals.
They remained calm when all about them was panic and mayhem, seemingly oblivious to the helter-skelter of the bumping and jostling of the final kilometres.
Then, with the flamme rouge fast disappearing behind them, Australian pair Matt Goss and Mark Renshaw, would carve their way through the last few hundred metres of the race before swinging aside to allow the fastest of them all, Mark Cavendish, to finish off the display with a devastating burst of power.
It always finished the same way, or so it seemed. The Manx-Missile hunched low over his handlebars, muscular legs pushing his biggest gear at a phenomenal speed, running down those who had dared break for the line early, or just dragging off those trying to slingshot out of his slipstream.
And then, just before the line, his arms are raised high and a smile almost as big as the Isle of Man itself spread across his face while in the background anguished looks from the likes of Greipel and Farrar tell the story of the also rans.
It was a dream combination.
But nothing lasts forever, and even before the demise of their HTC team at the end of 2011, Goss and Renshaw were looking to expand their horizons and try their luck as sprinters in their own right.
After all, as enjoyable as it had been working for Cavendish and clocking up win after win, nobody wants to be a lead out man forever. It was time to break away from domestic duties and make their own way in the world.
The cycling world already knew that Renshaw and Goss were fast. Who could forget Renshaw hitting those final corners on the Champs Elysees at the conclusion of the 2009 Tour de France to drag Cavendish to victory. Cavendish may have crossed the line first but it was all Renshaw’s doing.
His speed even frightened Cavendish who, while glued to Renshaw’s back wheel, felt sure that they would smash into the barriers as they negotiated that final bend. No one else could follow and the pair motored away for a most comprehensive win.
Then last year, at the early season races in the Middle East, both Renshaw and Goss picked up the slack when an out of sorts Cavendish failed to have an impact. Renshaw claimed a stage win and overall victory at the windy Tour of Qatar, while Goss claimed a stage at the Tour of Oman and wore the leaders’ jersey until the race turned lumpy.
Goss went on to have a most successful season in 2011, with further wins at Paris-Nice and the Tour of California, but his crowning glory was claiming the sprinters’ classic, Milan-San Remo. There was no doubting his talent now.
A narrow defeat to Cavendish at the World Championships just whet his appetite for more, and firmed his belief that he could match the Manxman at his own game.
With rumours that HTC were having trouble finding a sponsor and that Cavendish was about to jump ship and join Team Sky, Goss and Renshaw took steps to ensure their own futures. For Goss, that meant spearheading the new Australian outfit GreenEdge, a move not without risk considering the Pegasus saga from the previous year that left sprint legend Robbie McEwen scrambling for a team on the eve of the season.
Renshaw however had no reason to be concerned. He found himself at the well established Dutch team Rabobank. Cavendish, as predicted, ended up at Sky, while HTC folded, their days of dominating sprints gone forever.
So how would the trio perform now that they were broken up? Would Cavendish be able to negotiate his way through the traffic without the help of his Aussie mates?
Would Goss be able to continue the form he showed throughout 2011? And would Renshaw be able to shake off the ‘world’s best lead out man’ tag?
The answer to the first question came early as Cavendish opened up his 2012 account by trading stage wins with Tom Boonan at the Tour of Qatar before claiming stage two of Tirreno-Adriatico. His spring campaign was quiet with a failure at Milan-San Remo, although he did pick up Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. But with two wins from the three sprint stages contested so far at this year’s Giro d’Italia, it seems to be business as usual for the sprint king.
Over at GreenEdge however, Goss was having a harder time of things. With a disappointing Tour Down Under and just one top ten finish at the Tour of Oman, the Aussie’s fortunes briefly turned around when he was a part of GreenEdge’s historic team time trial victory at Tirreno-Adriatico. But as with Cavendish, he went missing during the spring one dayers and was overshadowed by team mate Simon Gerrans at Milan-San Remo.
Then came a remarkable and yet frustrating run of results. At the Tour of Turkey, Goss’s form returned, but he still couldn’t manufacture a win. He placed second four times, even losing out to former team mate Renshaw on stage four. And then, on the first sprint stage of the Giro d’Italia, he finished second again, this time behind Cavendish.
A day later Cavendish was wiped out in a controversial crash and Goss finally broke through for his first win of the season, although the status quo was restored on stage five with Goss once again finishing second behind his former HTC leader.
The Manxman was pushed all the way however and a Goss win in a head to head battle against Cavendish seems to be getting closer.
While the Brits fawn over Cavendish, and Goss faces the added pressure of leading Australia’s first pro-team into battle, there is less of a spotlight on Renshaw.
Tucked away on a Dutch team that gets little publicity in Australia, the New South Welshman has been solid throughout the first part of the season. His solitary victory remains the one over Goss in Turkey but he has accumulated a swag of top five finishes spread across the Tour Down Under, the Tour of Qatar, the Tour of Turkey and the Giro, indicating that further wins are not far away.
The dream combination are no more, but each survives and prospers in his new environment, adding depth to the ranks of the sprinters and offering us mouth watering opportunities to see them race against each other.
Cavendish will be pushed more than ever. Goss will be driven to prove his worth. Renshaw will scrap for his share of the spoils. It’s bad news for the likes of Greipel and Farrar, but it is going to be spectacular for us, the fans.
Let the lead out begin!
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