So Mark Cavendish’s lead-out man, Mark Renshaw, was booted out of Stage 11 of the Tour yesterday. During a crazy, high-speed sprint for the finish line, Renshaw head-butted Julian Dean, lead-out man for Tyler Farrar. It was such an exciting moment, I rewound the DVR several times to watch it again. Cavendish sprinted the final 300 meters to win the stage (Farrar placed third).
Personally, I’m glad they disqualified Renshaw. A head-butt? Come on! That’s really crappy sportsmanship. Here’s a video (in Spanish or Italian, I think. YouTube versions were pulled for violating copyright. I assume this one is ok to post.) I like Cavendish, but I’d really like to see Farrar win at least one stage this Tour. He’s come close on a few so far, but just can’t quite get there. I don’t know much about him, but he comes across as a respectful, genuinely nice guy in interviews. With Renshaw gone, Cavendish is going to have a little tougher of a time winning a stage on his own without his top lead-out man. We’ll see what happens. I’m going watch Stage 12 that I recorded earlier.
Today’s food journal (I was horrible today):
Breakfast:
– Panera strawberry smoothie = 260 cal.
– Pumpkin muffin = 530
Lunch:
– Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwich = 430
– Diet Coke = 0
Dinner:
– French toast = 447
– Diet Coke = 0
Snack (because I haven’t eaten enough crap today):
– Skinny Cow ice cream cup = 150
Life’s a journey. Enjoy the ride!
_O
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Thanks for visiting.
One thing I forgot to mention in my post was how Renshaw squeezed Farrar against the wall (after the head-butt with Julian). I can understand some contact will occur with any sport, although a head-butt is poor sportsmanship. On the other hand, the dangerous move of squeezing someone against the wall to close the gap was a bad, bad move. Those two actions combined are what got Renshaw disqualified. Good call, I say.
+1. Hitting the barriers at that kind of speed is no joke: just ask Jalabert or Abdoujaparov. Let’s hope it’s a clean sprint into Revel today.
Yeah, I can’t imagine even getting up to those kind of speeds on a bike. When they do crash, it’s a wonder there aren’t more severe injuries far more often. Scary.