Brilliant finish by Cav. He really is proving himself to be unbeatable.

And Renshaw headbutting that guy from Garmin lol.

renshaw headbutt was good. fairly 'boring' stage prior to that

There was some proper argy bargy going on there. Can't believe they can headbutt like that at those speeds. So impressive

Excellent finish by Cav too

What helmet for bringing the pain?

or..

and the points standing..

1. PETACCHI Alessandro 161 pts
2. HUSHOVD Thor 157 pts
3. MC EWEN Robbie 138 pts
4. CAVENDISH Mark 132 pts

With 4 more flat stages to go, who knows who will be in green at the end.

just watched cav's interview, very good at acknowledging how others helped him and seemed a pretty stand up guy.

Good to see after all the slagging he gets on here!

Chabal on the podium for the handshake, not sure he can ride a bike but Renshaw wouldn't mess with him no matter what.

columbia has to contest some of the intermediate sprints if they want green

I'm hearing Renshaw has been kicked out of the race, whether that means stage or whole tour I don't know…

Yeah. his name is on the official withdraw list. anyone else think if he wasn't cav's leadout man he'd still be in???

In the withdrawals section

117 RENSHAW Mark (AUS) TEAM HTC – COLUMBIA non-race

http://www.letour.fr/2010/TDF/LIVE/us/abandons.html

Mark Cavendish won stage 11 in the Tour de France. It's his 3rd stage win. lead-out man Renshaw has been kicked out of the Tour.

Tweets by news_cycling

That's awful.

haven't seen the butt. Was it that bad?

Comparable to McEwen in his prime. You can see Dean getting his elbow in first so I think the disqualification is a bit harsh.

And what about those two guys who actually had a fist fight at the end of one of the earlier stages? They only had a small fine. Renshaw gives someone a small headbutt and gets kicked out.

Really hope Renshaw hasn't been kicked out, with 4 flat stages left, and if HTC decided to contest even just a couple of intermediates, I think Cav could still go for green in Paris.

Not without Renshaw though, that bloke is IMMENSE!

From the BBC:
1710: This just in from news agency Reuters who have been speaking to Tour techincal director Jean-Francosi Pescheux. "Normally, he's out of the race." However Pescheux insisted the race jury's decision had not been announced.

So hope yet!

Seems to be the way with these things, it was the same last year when Cav was DQ'd from the stage when he leant on Thor Hushovd as the barriers narrowed. The correct response to that (IMO) would have been to relegate him to the last place in that bunch, as it was it was that one decision which cost him the green jersey. In fact Hushovd was equally guilty for almost forcing him into the barriers!

That sort of argy bargy happens in sprints all the time, I've seen worse than that. 🙁

I don't get the Cav slagging that goes on here though, he's a really nice guy in person. Actually quite quiet.

So I guess Lance is just aiming to finish the Tour now? 🙁

Confirmed now on BBC, hes been thrown out, bad news for Cav… Anyone else in the team who can fill Renshaws boots – or do the rest just try and use the other teams and launch from their, as in Cav's victory the other day?

you usually get relegated to last on the stage and Julian Dean started to lean first .Maybe they thought the head but and switching course to much ,but we have seen much worse

he's a really nice guy in person.

NO he isn't!

Actually quite quiet.

I'll let you have this one

Well done on yet another win though. be interesting to see if he can do it without renshaw this year now

Cav is fine when he wins.

But when he loses…..whoa!

All sprinters have a lead out man who is usually quick enough to be in the mix at the finish anyway.It's a fairly specialized niche doing Renshaws job so i'm not sure who else has the legs or nous to do it

I don't think (hope) that decision will stand

I hope Cav stays exactly as he is, he clearly likes winning and hates losing. Its good to see someone who shows abit of passion and heart.

Far better than the moribund drivel that the "media trained" masses spout.

Cav is a successful (winning!) British sportsman who has a personality and shows it. Good for him.

I don't think (hope) that decision will stand

First rule of racing: Commissaires decision is final.

This aint football c-l! there is the right to a written appeal

apart from in the devil 😉

just seen it, no way should renshaw be out the race. its a joke, sprinting is a contact sport, if you don't like it, don't get in the mix. dean is trying to push renshaw into the barriers and renshaw simply pushes back. bollox to the lot of them, gan on Cav, take the green, show them you can't be broken

rant over!

Just been watching the ITV4 highlights, you can see Mark Renshaw deliberately move off his line after the headbutting. As Chris Boardman was saying, the first one is just natural sprint reaction to being barged, the second one was more deliberate blocking.

Still think an outright DQ is a bit harsh though. Don't think Cav's sprinting will be anywhere near as smooth without his main leadout man.

Don't think it was the headbutting that got Renshaw thrown out – I think the fairly cynical turn, look and force Farrar into the barriers was the one that did him. That could have been fatal at those speeds.

sprinting is a contact sport

boxing is a contact sport, judo is a contact sport, karate is a contact sport etc etc.

do they throw their bikes at each other when the camera's have switched off?

contact sport my arrse.

leaning in is tolerated by the Commissaires but head butting him back doesn't mean its right, and the block was pre-meditated.

punishment raised my eyebrows though.

in all the satges there has been a lot of effort to disrupt the HTC train, that guy moved over into Renshaw and kept coming despite being nutted, he was leading out no one and only there to disrupt and got dealt with accordingly. The moving off line later isnt a throwing out offence. As usual it stinks of Cav bashing.

he'd stopped leaning before the last headbutt

So fairly likely that it was a combination of both that got him thrown out. Seems pretty clear to me that the powers that be are out to get Cavendish one way or another. Maybe by next years tour he'll have learned to keep his head down and stop behaving like a dick.

I'm not really a fan of Cavendish although I've been warming to him this week and I feel a bit sorry for him now.

Dean should be punished too, to be fair
and if you look at the head-on shot, you could say that Renshaw is moving out of the way of the majority of the sprinters that are to his right
plus, as anagallis says, the HTC team have to put up with Lampre, Garmin and Sky trying to disrupt them for the last 10k at 60kph
.
punish Renshaw but sending him home is very very harsh

Renshaw was cynical looking at Tyler and moving across. There again Julian Dean had just been trying to push him in to the barrier, so a bit of red mist there, methinks. The only thing that I can't get over is that Dean has got away with it. Anybody think we haven't heard the last of this?

By the way all bike racing has some form of contact in it, including MTB, in my experience. Never more so when fighting for a place at the end. It happens in all sports including swimming, which actually one of the dirtiest sports I have competed in(open water obviously not the lanes stuff).

Excellent exciting finish. Renshaw should not have been sent home for that. Cavendish seems to have grown up a lot this year. I couldn't bare the chap last year, but this Tour he appears to have learned the fine art of keeping his mouth shut when required. Let's hope Renshaw's appeal works and they start to take some intermediate sprints. Cavendish to take Green into Paris would be excellent, especially as Wiggings' tour is going to amount to nowt .

What was Renshaw thinking? Two headbutts more than needed IMO.
But to look behind and shut the door like that.
I can only assume the reason they didn't put him last was because that wouldn't stop him doing it again?
I admired Renshaw up until that point, but that was out of order.

Renshaw is legend for Facebook 😕

do you think he deserved to be kicked out though oldgit?

Yeh I was pretty surprised by the continual headbutting, way too obvious. And the deliberate swerve to clock was well out of order.