17 Jul 2010

Cavendish wins 13th stage of Tour but loses aide

9:29 am on 17 July 2010

The English sprinter Mark Cavendish's 13th Tour de France victory of his career was not his luckiest as close aide Mark Renshaw was disqualified over a head-butting incident.

The HTC-Columbia rider Renshaw led in the final stretch when New Zealand's Julian Dean, working for the American sprinter Tyler Farrar, tried to block his way.

The Australian Renshaw head-butted Dean to keep him out of the way of Cavendish, who surged to his third stage win of this Tour ahead of Italy's Alessandro Petacchi with Farrar third.

The Tour's technical director Jean-Francois Pescheux says Renshaw's out because everyone could've ended up on their backs.

But Renshaw's team back his actions, saying sprinting isn't kindergarten.

HTC-Columbia's sports director Rolf Aldag says Renshaw had both hands on the handlebars and there was no other solution than to get Dean away with the head otherwise everybody would have ended up in the fence.

Luxembourg's Andy Schleck retained the overall lead with a 41-second advantage over defending champion Alberto Contador.