One of the most dangerous parts of pro cycling are the mass sprints. To be successful in these tightly packed, high speed situations the riders need plenty of bottle. Skill and aggression are also necessary and in 2010s stage 11 these two attributes were used by HTC-Columbia to win the stage.
The teams biggest rival were Garmin-Transitions and the friction between the two was the closest you would get to a football club style rivalry in cycling. They were both American teams and they loved beating each other and as they had two of the top sprinters of the time, Tyler Farrar of Garmin and Mark Cavendish of HTC, the flat stage 11 meant the teams would again come head to head, literally.
Coming into the final 600 meters Cavendish and his lead out man Mark Renshaw were on the left of the road close to the barriers. Just to their right was Julian Dean leading out Tyler Farrar. Dean seemed to be veering left which meant the HTC men might get boxed in. Renshaw decided to put an end to it by headbutting Dean on the shoulder. The first two times didn’t do the trick but the third one certainly did. Dean was moved to the right and a huge space opened up for Cavendish and he did a long sprint for the win as he was charging off Renshaw swung back to the left almost pushing Farrar into the barriers, in effect taking care of both of the Garmin men.
Cavendish saw Renshaws actions as great team work but the commissaries disagreed and disqualified Renshaw from the race.
James Rannoch CC 