I’m pretty ambivalent about the response to this incident (the good stuff starts at 5:30). The headbutting was excessive but Dean definitely opened with line deviation and elbowing. I’m also willing to give Renshaw the benefit of the doubt that he saw empty space when he checked back and started to deviate and what turned out to be blocking and nearly crashing Tyler.
Punishments certainly, but expulsion? I think the whole Peleton and the union are on edge after the Cavendish fiasco and the recent take on the doping wars.
There have been way worse behaviors that haven’t carried expulsion before. Fines, penalties, whatever.
I think they were so Severe on this one, beccause of the Chop on Tyler Farrar. Even thought it might not have been deliberate, from an outsiders position it clearly looks like he tried to block Farrar.
The Headbutt however was the only thing he could do to stop Dean Completely cutting into his line and In the process boxing in mark cavendish.
I don’t see how this gets an ejection and how the fight between Baredo and Costa doesn’t have such a harsh penalty. They Attacked each other.
or going back to the first sprint stage with Jeremy hunt Punching with Cav.
How do you punish a guy which whose only job is to lead Cav to the finish line and doesn’t care about his own result in the tour? Relegating him would be completely useless and send the wrong message to the millions of viewers/cyclists as it would almost condone his actions when in fact it was absolutely inexcusable. A relegation would be a slap on the wrist and he deserved much more for putting all the riders safety in jeopardy. Without his expulsion cat 5 racers would be more inclined to headbutt each other at the weekly crits. Sure in sprints certain aggressive actions are taken and even accepted, such as elbowing and minor deviations from one’s line, however, headbutting is uncalled for…especially 3 headbutts and then blocking Farrar. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t stand Farrar and his constant bitching and his Transitions commercials that come on ever 3 seconds, but Renshaw was out of line. Hats off to the officials for taking the heat and sticking with their convictions and keeping the riders safety in mind.
a ) No one crashed, unlike many previous cases of violation that didn’t carry expulsion
b ) Why didn’t Dean get any punishment after visibly changing lines into physical contact with Renshaw and clearly elbowing?
There is zero consistency here and I’ve been following cycling far too long to believe race officials, and especially the UCI have anything approaching ethical convictions. They’re certainly big on moneyz though.
Ah, I just now finished the video and saw the aerial view of the sprint and yea, Dean was definitely leaning on Renshaw…I spoke too soon. However cutting Farrar off was still a bit much.