Renshaw out for headbutting

So pushing someone towards the barriers with your shoulders is an act of love and kindness?

Yeah, didn't think so...

Has anyone else noticed that all farrar does in interviews is complain? Jesus, is the due on his period for the entire month of July? Will tampax be brought in as a co-sponsor? If he's still riding at Zoetemelks age he'd have to plan ahead to make sure the uci knows he's going for a pap smear.

 

So if someone starts pushing you into the barriers you're just gonna let them or are you gonna just slow down and the complain you didn't win?

 

as stated well above, no argument with that position. what renshaw did was certainly dangerous and should not have occurred, but to let dean off scot-free while giving renshaw the guillotine? bad call by the officials. cav was relegated for having let his line drift over another's last year, and dean gets nothing? this is like a bad hockey penalty where the instigator gets away while the one who retaliates gets the gamer. bad call. and vaughters is really getting up my nose with his crying foul.

 

**** off, you obvioysly know nothing about sprinting. This is their job, to be able to ride at 60+ k's touching elbows and every other part of their bodies. And guess what they even practice this. The danger came from Dean end of story, watch the lead out for stage five, Renshaw was shouldered by three seperate riders, not soft seppo sprinter ****, I amtalking full on shouldering, what did Renshaw do- held his line, even Hushovd could not move him. In this instance he still held his line.
That is all, end of story.

 

The barging and head butts were quite disturbing but not as much as when Renshaw changed his line and almost forced Farrar into the barrier (at least I think it was Farrar). Had they DQ'd him for that I'm guessing there wouldn't be as much argument here.

 

I guess it was in violation of "the spirit of the sport" or some spurious rule somewhere... but elbows and shoulders are still allowed.

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Untwist your undergarments, tough guy. Absolutely no reason for you to be so upset. What's the problem? You obviously feel threatened by me for some reason. Why? Did I question your sexual orientation? Did I challenge your manhood? Take a deep breath and count to 10. Might help you live longer - I can feel your blood pressure soaring from here...

NEWS FLASH - the riders' helmets are protection from impacts with the pavement, not other riders' heads...

 

I am far from a Columbia fan and i do think that Cavendish's tacts sometimes border on the unprofessional but in this case Dean started first. He attempted to push Renshaw towards the barrier, release Farrar from the middle and block Cavendish on the edge at the same time. Renshaw defended his line, a bit overaggressively, true, but he wasn't the instigator. To my eyes the subsequent blocking move on Farrar was worse than the headbutt...

 

It really doesn't matter who started it, retaliation is never a goo thing. It just leads to more retaliation which escalates. All Renshaw needed to do was push back at Dean and hold his line. That's it, that is what he is paid to do. Not head butt a guy 3 times then swerve his line when Cav zipped by. At those speeds, not holding your line is ridiculous, regardless of whether or not you "didn't think anyone was there." You can't assume like that.

As for th penalty, what the heck other penalty could there be? A time penalty, a dollar amount. Neither would go towards making the sprints int he future safer now would they. At some point the officials need to take a stand. Now if something like this happens in the future and they don't take a stand, then by all means jump on that soap box and scream. I'll be right with you.

 

I think a stiff fine would have been a better penalty than expulsion. Was unfortunate that Renshaw took Farrar's line when he dropped off (not that he would have had a chance to beat Cavendish), but a clean sprint would eliminate all opportunity for excuses to be made.

Going forward I guess we will get to see how big a part Renshaw really is of Cavendish's success.

 

It would be interesting to read through the rules of the race. My guess is that they are a little vague and open to interpretation.

 

Based on the pre-race commentary on Verses, it appears that more weight is being given to Renshaw's clear interruption of Farrar's line than to the headbutting regarding the DQ.

Having seen the top down video feed it is very clear that Dean started it all by forcing Renshaw into the barrier and ultimately block Cavendish, hence the headbutting response.

This incident should certainly re-fuel the HTC vs. Garmin rivalry.

 

Because monetary fines have been so effective in the past at stopping idiotic behaviour in the Tour? It is unfortunate for Renshaw that he is the new standard but a line has to be drawn somewhere I guess.

 

Bernard Hinault, 5 time Tour champ and probably the most attacking rider in the history of the sport sums it up the best.

Get out of my way you weak peasant.


Hinault can be seen every day on the Tour podium and still doesn't suffer fools gladly...

Then again, Hinault is ace. There should be a Church of Hinault. More doing and less complaining about trivial stuff like complaining about weak attempts at headbutts that don't even cause a rider to flinch. Hinault probably would have thrown Renshaw off the Tour for failing to land anything but mere glancing blow that was nowhere near close to knocking Dean off his bike.

But none of this really matters as Farrar just doesn't have the speed to beat Cav. Didn't have it yesterday, didn't have it in bunch gallop the day before for minor points, didn't have it at any other stage either apart from the ones where Cav sat up.

 

Farrar has withdrawn so that will totally deflate any more potential clashes.

 

Why did he leave the tour?

Not that i like Cav.. but Farrar is a pre-madonna.

 

Haven't seen anything from Farrar yet, but one of the team officials stated he got dropped on one of the earlier climbs today and then withdrew. He kept mentioning the broken wrist injury, but maybe it was a case of sour grapes as well after yesterday.

After it was announced on TV they had a quick video clip of Cavendish giving the "thumb slitting the throat" sign. Not sure if it was directed at Farrar's departure, or if he was just signaling he was done in the heat of the day. The timing of it was interesting though.

 

There was a piece on Eurosport the other day of The Badger going environmental, encouraging kids not to throw rubbish the way the peleton do. I think they edited out the piece of "Pick up that bidon, or you're in for some biffo...".

 

Changing his line after he dropped off was the reason for the disqualification, they said the headbutting was excessive but not punishable. If you watch the overhead view in slow motion you can see Renshaw look over his shoulder & see Farrar, then he swings hard left in front of him. I think the headbutts were ok ,JD was being just as agressive but after he started to drop back he should have just let it go, not taken it out on Farrar.