Renshaw the odd man out in Australia's cycling team

The men’s road cycling team for the 2012 London Olympics was announced on the 25th June.

The men’s 250km road race will be staged at Surrey’s Box Hill on the first day of the Olympic competition, being the 28th July (Tour de France finishes 22nd July), with the women’s 140km race the following day.

Stuart O’Grady (Orica-GreenEDGE) has been named for his sixth Olympics and Cadel Evans (BMC) his fourth. Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEDGE), Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Michael Rogers (Sky) have also been named.

All five will ride the road race, with Evans and Rogers competing in the time trial (TT) – Rogers having won three individual time trial titles. Goss is our best chance for Gold if it comes down to a sprint. If a break goes, Gerrans is likely to be the best bet for Australia.

Personally it is not who is in the team, but who has been left out. Mark Renshaw should be included in this team at the expense of O’Grady.

Renshaw was overlooked by Matt White for the World Champs last year and I can’t help but think that Renshaw might have been the difference between Matt Goss taking Gold rather than Silver over Cavendish.

Clearly there is some tension between White and Renshaw which has never been fully aired but I can’t help but think not including Renshaw actually hampers Goss’ ability to take Gold if the race ends in a bunch sprint – which is a highly likely scenario.

There was almost nothing in the World Champs and Renshaw would have been the best person to lead-out Goss. Make no mistake, Renshaw was and still is the best lead-out man in the business. He continually ‘dropped’ Cav off at the exact spot needed for Cav to kick clear and win. There are very few cyclists that have the exact capabilities of Renshaw. His sustained power output and ability to position himself to drop a rider off are very specialized qualities.

O’Grady has been a wonderful servant for Australian cycling but at 38 I am unsure what he will bring to the table that would benefit the team more than Renshaw. I don’t buy the experience angle either – Renshaw has excellent experience and knows Cavendish very well. Renshaw and Goss also worked together at HTC so they know how to work together.

Luke Durbridge also missed out. He is the reigning under 23 TT world champ but his limited road racing experience against that of Cadel’s is justification enough to see why Cadel is in. Cadel is likely to be pretty exhausted after the Tour de France, but the same can be said for just about all of the major contenders who will line-up for the road race.

As it stands, Tom Boonen is my favourite for Gold. He is skipping the Tour de France and focused on Olympics and World Champs. He has ridden the course at Surry and it suits his style of riding – a few climbs, but nothing too tough. His sustained power output combined with the fact that he will be very fresh going into the race cannot be ignored. I think his dropping the hammer at the 55km mark at Paris-Roubaix is still the best moment in cycling thus far in 2012.

Cancellara is likely to be there as well so if those two go for it, I expect Gerrans to be ready to jump like he did in Milan San-Remo earlier this year. Whether Gerrans can hold Boonen and Cancellara’s wheel for a sustained period is another story. He held Cancellara’s wheel at Milan San-Remo in part because much of the finish was downhill.

Thoughts on the Australian men’s Olympic road team and who would you have included/excluded?

Further to that, should Matt White be the SD for Orica-GreenEDGE as well as be responsible for the Olympics and Worlds?