While Mark Cavendish did win his third stage of this years Tour de France we will have to wonder if Tyler Ferrar's (Garmin) tactic of going from 500m out zooming past Cav's lead out man Mark Renshaw would have worked. We won't know as the repeated headbutts on Ferrar's lead out man Julian Dean and then the block of Farrar an the barriers has lead correctly I think to the Columbia man's disqualification from the Tour.
Watch the below from channel F10 at about 4:22.
Farrar stil managed to cross the line third after all of Renshaw's attentions so you have to really wonder what if? We shall find out on the next sprinters stage which probably isn't until Saturday when Cavendish will have to follow the wheel of another team mate. Was it unlucky 13 for Cav as he loses the man he is confident will lead him to the front when it matters?
UPDATE: Here is what Mark Renshaw had to say about the incident to Australian TV after crossing the line before he knew he was kicked off the Tour.
Also here is the moment caught live on camera that Cav finds out and his total disbelief and his immediate reaction to defend his team mate.
And finally here is Ferrar's take on the incident.
UPDATE 2: Yeah I've done a little digging and found footage of the one day in 1997 that Eric Zabel who is now the sprint coach on Columbia-HTC got relegated for similar behaviour in the finish. It was throwing a water bottle and drug use that led to exclusions for the tour that day.
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