Heat is on as head-butt spoils Cavendish party

Published>Fri, Jul 16 10 12:16 AM

The heatwave went to the riders' heads on the Tour de France as Mark Renshaw was kicked out of the race over a head-butting incident that spoiled stage winner Mark Cavendish's party on Thursday.

It was Cavendish's 13th Tour victory of his career but not his luckiest.

His HTC-Columbia team mate Renshaw led in the final stretch when New Zealand's Julian Dean, working for sprinter Tyler Farrar, tried to block his way.

Australian Renshaw head-butted the Garmin Transitions rider twice to keep him out of the way of Cavendish, who surged to his third stage win of this Tour.

The Briton won ahead of Italy's Alessandro Petacchi, who took the green points jersey, while American Farrar was third. Luxembourg's Andy Schleck retained the overall lead with a 41-second advantage over defending champion Alberto Contador.

"Renshaw's out. We saw the film once and it's blatant. He head-butted Dean twice like in a keirin race," said Tour technical director Jean-Francois Pescheux.

"This is cycling, not fighting. Everybody could have ended up on their backs."

Minutes after crossing the line Renshaw told reporters: Either he (Dean) keeps turning left puts me in the barrier and I crash, or I try to lean against him, I didn't have another option. It's all about sprinting straight."

However, the 27-year-old later said the race jury's decision had not come as a surprise.

"I was expecting it," he told Reuters by telephone.

Renshaw's team believed his actions in the run up to the finish of the 184.5-km 11th stage were justified.

'NOT KINDERGARTEN'

"There was no other solution because Renshaw had both hands on the handlebars, there was no other solution than get him away with the head otherwise everybody would have ended up in the fence," HTC-Columbia sports director Rolf Aldag told reporters.

"Sprinting is not kindergarten, if they come by each other, shoulder against shoulder, elbow against elbow and if you can't do that you'd better do time trialling."

Cavendish added: "It's against what we as a team believe happened. I'm very sad."

New Zealand's Dean had another point of view and thought the incident had cost his team mate Farrar the win..

"I jumped my front wheel in Cav`s wheel. I went past Renshaw and tried to keep the speed high and while I was coming out of Renshaw he didn't seem to like it too much," Dean told reporters.

"He shouldn't have done that. It's not appropriate. I didn't make any movement at all. Next thing I felt like him leaning on me and hitting me with his head.

"Then he carried on afterwards and came across on Tyler's line and stopped Tyler from possibly winning the stage."

Renshaw's disqualification did not affect the race result and Farrar conceded defeat.

"Cav did a neat sprint. He's not to blame. But they don't need to race like that. I want to win but I don't want to crash," he told reporters.

It was not the first incident on a race that has been hit by a heatwave with temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius.

Last Friday, Spain's Carlos Barredo and Portugal's Rui Costa traded punches after the sixth stage. Both riders were fined but continued in the race.

Cavendish's 13th career victory in the race is a performance unequalled by any sprinter in the last two decades.

The 25-year-old has eclipsed sprinting greats such as his mentor Erik Zabel of Germany, Italian Mario Cipollini and Australia's Robbie McEwen.

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