Mark Renshaw thrown out of Tour de France
Mark Renshaw, teammate of today’s stage 11 winner Mark Cavendish, has been thrown out of the Tour de France.
Renshaw riding to Team Columbia was seen head-butting Julian Dean of New Zealand out of the way to allow Cavendish to sprint to the finish line. Renshaw under the Flamme-Rouge saw Dean heading clear, and he head-butted him, disrupting the Garmin-Transitions rider’s chances of taking the stage victory.
Tour technical director Jean-Francois Pescheux said: “Renshaw was declassified immediately but we have decided to also throw him off the race. We've only seen the pictures once, but his actions are plain for all to see. This is a bike race, not a gladiator's arena. This is cycling, not fighting. Everybody could have ended up on their backs,” he said.
Renshaw provided the springboard for Cavendish to win the 13th Tour stage of his career at Bourg-lès-Valence. It will now be a major blow to Cavendish as Renshaw was the lead-out man for the team. Andy Schleck retains the yellow jersey, maintaining a 41-second lead over last year’s champion Alberto Contador.
Cavendish now becomes the most successful Tour sprinter in the last two decades, taking 13 stage wins in the last three years.
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