LES-VALENCE, France - Mark Renshaw was expelled from the Tour de France for illegally head-butting a rival in a frenzied final sprint of the 11th stage won by teammate Mark Cavendish Thursday. Andy Schleck of Luxembourg retained the overall lead, cruising into the finish in the pack after riding part of the stage discussing a vacation with his main rival for the title - defending champion Alberto Contador. Renshaw, Cavendish's lead-out man on HTC Columbia, rammed his head three times into the shoulder of Julian Dean - the lead-out man for Tyler Farrar on Garmin-Transitions - in an apparent bid to push him out of the way during the final sprint. Dean was leading the pack at the time. “This is cycling, it's not wrestling,” course director Jean-Francois Pescheux said. After reviewing video of the sprint finish, the race jury said Renshaw was “removed from the competition for a particularly serious case.” They also said he was fined 200 Swiss francs (about $192) for a grave case of “irregular sprint.” Cycling's governing body UCI is based in Switzerland. After feeling three “hits” on his side, Dean said he was “a little bit astounded that this conduct was taking place,” and said he felt “shaken” as he crossed the line in 23rd place. A spokeswoman for HTC Columbia didn't immediately respond to an e-mail and a phone message seeking comment from Renshaw. Cavendish took his third stage win in this Tour in the 184.5km trek from Sisteron to Bourg-les-Valence featuring a mid-grade climb, with a time of 4 hours, 42 minutes, 29 seconds. After the head-butts, Cavendish spurted ahead in the final 300m and won in front of Alessandro Petacchi of Italy in second and Farrar in third. Cavendish rushed to Renshaw's defense, alleging that Dean had tried to elbow the Australian. “Mark used his head to get away,” he said. The stage was mainly flat, and thus favored sprinters. The general classification didn't change, with all the top contenders finishing behind the sprinters in the main pack. Schleck earned the yellow jersey for a third straight day. Contador of Spain remained second overall - 41 seconds behind. Fellow Spaniard Samuel Sanchez was third, 2:45 behind. Schleck had an easy - if hot - day, and did a bit of chatting in the peloton. “It was quiet and we can act like normal people,” said Schleck through a translator, adding that Contador was a friend and they had gone on vacation together. “So we spoke about - we remembered - our holidays.” The Luxembourg rider finished 65th, and Contador was 40th, with the same time as Cavendish. Lance Armstrong lost time for a second straight day: He finished in 114th place, 29 seconds behind the pack. He's 32nd overall, 17:51 behind Schleck.
