Mark Cavendish was relegated from fifth to 68th place on stage 12 of the Tour de France, after being judged to have deviated from his sprint in the final.
As the race reached 400m to go, the Astana Qazaqstan rider veered over to the left-hand side of the road, before swinging back in. Seconds later, the Manxman was forced to veer again, to avoid a lead-out rider who had stopped pedalling. It is unknown which move cost him, but the race jury judged that Cavendish had fallen foul of UCI Article 2.12.007-5.1 - "deviation from the chosen line that obstructs or endangers another rider or irregular sprint".
While Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) won his third stage of the race, Cavendish was forced to reflect on a relegation in what is his final Tour de France.
The 39-year-old was also fined 500CHF, as well as losing -13 points in the points classification, and losing out on the points he would have gained for finished fifth.
Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) was also judged to have deviated from his line and relegated, although his transgression was more blatant, almost moving Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) into the barriers on the right-hand side.
"We’re obviously pretty disappointed in that sprint because we think it was a solidly earned fifth place from Cavendish today," his sports director, Mark Renshaw, told ITV sport post-stage. "There were a couple of decisions that the commissaires panel has taken in that final, one of them affects us and Cavendish is really upset with this decision, as I am and as are the team, because we thought it was a hard earned fifth place. There’s many reasons for the way he sprinted.
"If we really analyse this move and break down those 50 metres, we can see that Dan McLay (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) is leading out Démare. If you then stack it up against the white line you can see that he’s parallel about .8 of a metre to the right of the white line. He then finishes his lead out and he moves to the left, my estimate is about 1.5 metres he moves to the left and stops pedalling.”
"I'm sure Thierry Gouvenou (the route designer) said in a meeting the other day that if you’re a lead-out man and you stop pedalling, please keep pedalling. So I think this move by McLay where he stops pedalling probably deserves more of a sanction than what Mark Cavendish deserved. I as a leadout man know that if you stop pedalling in a sprint like this then there will be a reaction.
"The reaction to that move by McLay stopping pedalling was Cav deviating to the left also with [Bryan] Coquard hard on the wheel. I think both riders, Cav and Coquard, had already committed to jumping to the left. So you've got a rider like McLay who stops pedalling at 74kmph, Cav in the same moment has already committed to jumping to the left and that's the reaction to that action."
"He’s really upset and really angry about the decision because he believes it was unfair and an action because of McLay coming back."
