British sprinter Mark Cavendish undeniably achieved his 3rd win of the 2010 Tour de France — the 13th of his career — on Thursday's Stage 11.
What remains for debate, however, is how much some heavy-handed tactics by his HTC-Columbia lead-out man Mark Renshaw contributed to that victory. Renshaw, for his part, was booted out of the race by Tour officials.
Overhead views of the final sprint in Bourg les Valence show Renshaw head-butting Garmin-Transition's Julian Dean, who was riding on his right. Check out the video above at about 5:30 for overhead view of the finish. It's possible that Renshaw thought Dean was moving to the left to block Cavendish.
With Dean out of the way, Renshaw opens a lane for Cavendish who drives through toward the finish. As Cavendish passes, Renshaw sweeps toward the left, appearing to block off Garmin's Tyler Farrar.
Interviewed on Versus after the race, Farrar said there are rules about riding straight at the finish to prevent accidents:
“It's not normal …. trying to crash everyone against the barriers.”
Farrar has been frustrated in his last two Tour de France appearances to take any sprints from Cavendish. Asked whether Renshaw's actions prevented his winning on Thursday, Farrar conceded that it probably didn't matter, although, “When something like this happens, it doesn't help your chances.”
Renshaw said he's got the reputation as a clean sprinter and didn't do anything wrong. Cavendish said he's grateful to have cyclists who protect him:
“Mark held Julian Dean off and opened the door for me to go. …
“It was Julian who put his elbow in and if Mark didn’t push back there was a chance they could have locked elbows and gone down… Mark just kept going and did everything he could to keep me out of trouble. I’m lucky to have a guy who will put himself on the line for me like that. He’s got incredible bike handling skills and it’s so nice to be able to follow his wheel from 50 kilometers to go and know that, at the finish, I’ll be put in a winning position.”
CyclingNews caught up with HTC-Columbia team manager Rolf Aldag after he unsuccessfully tried get the judges to change their decision.
“These are just old guys making bad a decision and you can quote me on that.”
Alessandro Petacchi finished second and Farrar finished in third.
The 13th Tour de France victory by Cavendish puts him ahead of the previous record of 12 achieved by Erik Zabel during his career.
Meanwhile, Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) held onto the yellow jersey, which wasn't challenged.
Thursday's stage was a 114-mile route from Sisteron to Bourg les Valence. With a half-hearted breakaway by three cyclists, the stage was the equivalent of watching paint dry.
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