Controversies and Dramas in Tour de France making it more interesting
The world’s most prestigious and toughest tour has entered into its 13th stage. The race contains 20 stages and eight stages are still to go. Tour de France is getting tougher and tougher for the participants as the cyclists are passing through the alpine mountains. The climb is steep and the stamina wrecking.
The overall standings of the cyclists are still the same but 11th stage of the tour was won by Mark Cavendish of HTC Columbia team. The British rider showed his class and determination and ended the 11th stage of the prestigious tour with a victory. The 184.5 km of breath taking and heart throbbing race from Sisteron to Bourg-les-Valenceseem seemed like never ending as it was a test for all the racers. Cavendish snatched victory which proved to be very controversial after the Australian rider Mark Renshaw was thrown out of the race. Renshaw tried to head but the rider from New Zealand in the final sprint of the stage.
Renshaw was declassified and dismissed from the race after this act. This was a strong blow for the stage winner because Mark Renshaw was representing the same team of Cavendish in the race. Mark Renshaw’s dismissal from the event might affect the HTC Columbia team in acquisition for stage to stage win. Race official of Tour de France Jean Francois Pescheux expressed his views bluntly about the incident. He said that we are throwing Mark Renshaw out of the race but it is not a sport to fight. This is just a cycle race and it has no place for Mark Renshaw anymore. Adding to that he said he is truly disappointed with the act of the Australian man as he has just seen the pictures related to the incident and it is very vivid for everyone to view the intention of Renshaw head butting the opponent while racing. On the other hand Renshaw defended him and said, it was not intentionally done and he has never faced such a penalty before. His character and intentions are crystal clear and no one has ever listened to a warning coming for him before so it was a bad day for him.
Incidents and accidents are part a of huge and thrilling events like Tour de France. As the stages passing the cyclists are getting eager for the glory. No doubt it is the hardest tour and that is why it gets even tougher and harder at each coming stage. Such events can make the event’s participants frustrated.
Talking about the Tour de France it is important to know about who is winning and competing against whom. Rivalry makes a race even tougher and exciting. Currently Andy Schleck is leading the race and wearing the yellow jersey. His rival Spanish man Alberto Contador is fighting hard to get closer and closer to the current race leader Schleck and has been able to shorten the lead of Schleck to 42 seconds at the end of 12th stage. On the other hand if we talk about rivalry, Andy Schleck and Contador are rivals and champs of the game, then we shouldn’t ignore the presence of world champion cyclist Cadel Evans. Cadel Evans is suffering from wrist injury and feeling difficult to stay on the mark. Before Andy Schleck, Evans was leading the race and wearing the yellow jersey. According to the world champion his injury is healing fast and he is going to give a strong competition to the opponents. At the end of 10th stage Evans was at the eighteenth place and 7 minutes, 47 seconds behind the leading opponent Andy Schleck of Luxemburg.
Andy Schleck is leading the table of overall standings of Tour de France and showing no signs of bowing out from the top position. The Spaniard Contador is at the second place followed by Sanchez. It is still a long way to go but let us see who is going to be victorious.
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