Cyclist Thrown Off Tour de France

Hope he had his helmet on: Australian cyclist Mark Renshaw, the lead-out man for his HTC-Columbia teammate Mark Cavendish, went to great lengths to give his team a leg up in the 11th stage of the Tour de France. So much so, in fact, that he head-butted Garmin-Transitions’ Kiwi lead-out man Julian Dean three times. Cavendish went on to win his third stage of the race—and 13th of his career—but Renshaw was declassified immediately and excluded from the Tour. “We’ve only seen the pictures once, but his actions are plain for all to see,” Jean-Francois Pescheux, a top race official, told the Associated Press. “They were blatant. This is a bike race, not a gladiator’s arena.” Nonetheless Cavendish was pleased with his win: “I’m very happy to win,” he said. “The team did a great job.”