Mark Cavendish's number one lead-out man, Mark Renshaw will miss the 2011 road World Championships. Australia left him out of its nine-man selection that it announced on Monday.
"Surprise surprise," Renshaw posted on his Twitter account. "No world champs for me. Would like to say I understand but I don't. Guess I need to prove myself?"
Renshaw led Cavendish to win the first stage of the Tour of Britain On Sunday in Dumfries. It continues the work he has performed for the last three years at team HTC-Highroad. This year, he helped Cavendish win five stages and the green jersey at the Tour de France.
He sprinted to one stage win and the overall classification of the Tour of Qatar this season. Yesterday, he finished second to Cavendish.
The World Championships in Copenhagen at the end of this month, September 25, favours sprinters. Cavendish is set to lead Great Britain's eight-man team, but he will not need to worry about Renshaw.
"I believe we've put together teams best suited for the course taking into account recent form and results," said team director, Kevin Tabotta in a press release. "We've considered the possible scenarios that might arise during the race and selected the riders to suit."
Tabotta saw to three medals - one gold in the Under 23 race - last year on home soil in Geelong, Australia. He will likely lead the men's team with Matt Goss, another one of Cavendish's team-mates and winner of this year's Milan-San Remo.
Renshaw is a reserve rider along with Adam Hansen.
"It was certainly one of the hardest teams to pick," added Tabotta, "because the depth and quality in the men's elite ranks is very healthy right now."
Goss and Renshaw will leave HTC-Highroad when it disbands at the end of this year and become team leaders in different teams. Goss signed for Australia's GreenEDGE and Renshaw will join Holland's Rabobank team. Cavendish is reported to be joining team Sky.
Australia's nine-man road race team
Simon Clarke (Astana)
Baden Cooke (Saxo Bank-SunGard)
Simon Gerrans (Sky)
Matthew Goss (HTC-Highroad)
Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Cervélo)
Mathew Hayman (Sky)
Stuart O'Grady (Leopard-Trek)
Michael Rogers (Sky)
Chris Sutton (Sky)
Time trial
Jack Bobridge (Garmin-Cervélo)
Richie Porte (Saxo Bank-SunGard)
Women's Road Race
Shara Gillow
Rochelle Gilmore
Chloe Hosking
Jessie Maclean
Carla Ryan
Amanda Spratt
Vicki Whitelaw
Time Trial
Shara Gillow
Taryn Heather
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