Some riders briefly held up the start of Stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse on Wednesday to protest Mark Cavendish's erratic cycling at the finish of Stage 4 on Tuesday that led to this crash.
The British sprinter for the US-based HTC-Columbia team has been docked 25 points in the sprinter competition and 30 seconds in the General Classification and been fined 200 Swiss francs.
The crash forced earlier Tour de Suisse leader Heinrich Haussler of Cervelo out of the race, as well as Frenchman Arnaud Coyot. The two cyclists who held up the start of the race included two of Haussler's teammates, according to CyclingNews. A couple of other riders didn't start Wednesday or dropped out early on because of the crash.
Cavendish is reportedly riding with a serious case of road rash on Wednesday. Teammate Mark Renshaw snapped this photo of Cavendish all bandaged up.
From the video, it appears that Cavendish loses control as he accelerates and bumps into Haussler. Alessandro Petacchi who is trailing on the side comes through unscatched and wins the stage.
Lance Armstrong of Team Radio Shack finished in the lead group but was far enough back to escape the carnage. He's 22nd overall and 30 second behind race leader Tony Martin of HTC-Columbia.
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