HTC-Columbia rider Mark Renshaw has apologized to Tour de France course director Jean-Francois Pescheux for the head-butting incident that saw him ejected from the race two days ago. The Australian had a "heat of the moment" exchange prompted when fellow leadout man Julian Dean (Garmin-Transitions) came into him with an elbow in the final meters of stage eleven.
Renshaw opened up space on the left for teammate Mark Cavendish in a way that harkens back to his days on the track, but the subsequent block of sprint rival Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) combined to prompt the ultimate corrective action by race officials.
"Renshaw has phoned me and apologized," said Pescheux. "I appreciate that he has phoned to tell me that."
The HTC-Columbia rider maintains that he was defending his position for Cavendish, and moved over to protect his team leader's wheel, not to block Farrar. When he looked to his left he said he didn't see anyone coming. Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) began his sprint on the right side of the road and ended it on the left, but was not relegated from his second place by race officials.
Renshaw made no apologies to the Garmin-Transitions team, and was furious to hear that they agreed with the decision to throw him out of the race. Now it seems the sprint rivalry between the two American teams has been ratcheted up a notch, with the Australian saying he had nothing futher to say to anyone on the Garmin team. He told Het Laatste Nieuws, "Cavendish is ten times the sprinter as Farrar. Farrar is simply riding around."