cavendish, relegated in stage 6 (tour of california)

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so what's going on here? commissaires called him for hanging on to his team car, and cav's explanation confuses me.

http://www.velonews.com/article/72742

cav's story is that his spare machine was set up with an 11-23 cassette but "was adjusted for a 12." he had a mechanic fix that as he got back into the race.

are we talking about limit screws here? what does it mean for a bike to be "adjusted for a 12?"

meanwhile, poor cav... first, he leads out for an absent ciolek, sits up, and gets passed. then this, although i'm hesitating to write this off as bad luck!