He wears the leader's jersey on stage 2 of the Tour of Britain, but Andre Greipel is set to ride in support of Lotto Soudal teammate Tony Gallopin on the key stage from Carlisle to Kendal.
"We have to see today because it's never easy to control the bunch with just six guys. We'll see which teams take the responsibility," Greipel told Cyclingnews.
Lotto Soudal came into the race with a number of objectives and got off to the perfect start as Greipel won stage 1 and pulled on the leader's jersey. However, with teams limited to six riders the German will now happily move into a support role, although he will have further chances later in the week.
"When you see the finish, on paper it's one that's perfect for Tony. We want to try and keep the bunch together for that but it's not going to be easy."
Renshaw hoping for his own chances at Worlds
The Tour of Britain is a key preparation race in the lead up to the World Championships in Doha next month, and although Mark Renshaw is riding this race as Mark Cavendish's lead-out man at Dimension Data he has his own hopes and ambitions for the Worlds.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Australia have a number of potential leaders for the flat course in Doha with Michael Matthews and Caleb Ewan the most obvious should the race end in a sprint. However in Renshaw and Haussler they have riders who have years of experience at racing in the Middle East and both riders have strong finishes to boot.
"It's going to be hard for Australia because we don't have one big sprinter like Great Britain or Germany. Italy is probably in the same boat so we'll probably have to go with a couple of options. We have to look to other ways of winning the race other than lining it out against guys like Cavendish and Greipel," Renshaw told Cyclingnews
"No one in the team has probably raced in Qatar other than me and Heinrich Haussler and I'd like to have my own chance in the race but it really all depends on what happens with the selection. There's Caleb Ewan, Michael Matthews and myself."
Renshaw won the Tour of Qatar in 2011 and finished a creditable seventh in last month's Hamburg Classic.
Costa enjoying 'insane step up' with Etixx QuickStep
Adrien Costa is enjoyed his stagiaire experience with Etixx-QuickStep but admits that the Tour of Britain will only get tougher after a relatively calm day on stage 1. The American rider made his debut with the Belgian WorldTour team on Sunday's stage from Glasgow to Castle Douglas.
"It's going great. It's insane and everything is just a step up from what I'm used to," Costa told Cyclingnews at the start of stage 2 in Carlisle.
"It's one of the biggest teams in the world so the support is top notch. Yesterday was a bit of an easy stage so today [stage 2] I think I'll discover what it's truly like."
Etixx came into the Tour of Britain with Daniel Martin as their nominated leader but they are stacked with options including Tony Martin and Julien Vermote. For Costa, it is about finding his feet, learning on the job and doing what is asked of him.
"We've a pretty open team and we don't really have a team leader yet. We're taking it day by day and we'll just see what happens. I've no pressure here and I'm just going to learn as much as I can and help the guys out."
Geoghegan-Hart working toward European Championships
Tao Geoghegan-Hart's two-year deal with Team Sky may have been in the news recently but the young rider is at the Tour of Britain in national colours and using the race as a springboard before the European Road Championships.
"I've got European Championships straight after this and we've got a strong team for that. It finishes with a 1.6km climb in Plumelic and it looks pretty hard. It's an aggressive race and it's only 150km," Geoghegan-Hart told Cyclingnews.
"It's always a bit of an unknown with it coming off this. In the last few years we've had the Worlds the weekend after Tour of Britain but now it's the Euros so it's basically the same schedule but a different race. It's a really hard one to get right but we'll give it a crack."
The British team for the Euros includes Jon Dibben, James Shaw, Gabriel Cullaigh, Oliver Wood, and Mark Stewart. "We've got a really strong team and although it can always go either way we want to make sure that we all get the most of it," said Geoghegan-Hart.
