WARNING! Tour de France spoiler below!

Competitive sports, like life, are governed by rules, which competitors agree to abide by. In sailing, the are the Racing Rules of Sailing. In professional baseball, there are the Official Rules.

Like our laws, these rules are designed not only to tell competitors how the game is structured, but also what conduct is appropriate and not appropriate. After watching Mark Renshaw of Columbia-HTC headbutt Julian Dean of Garmin-Transitions at the finish of today’s Stage 11, I wondered if cycling has a similar set of rules - ones that address sprint conduct specifically and give race officials the authority to pull a rider.

In case you missed the incident, the video below should fill you in. Renshaw was running interference for his teammate Mark Cavendish, while Dean was working to clear the path for his teammate Tyler Farrar. Afterward, Tour de France officials pulled Renshaw from the race, reminding riders that “this is a bike race, not a gladiator’s arena.” Skip forward to around 4 minutes to see the action play out:

Turns out someone answered my question about sprint rules, using past race decisions to illustrate the nuances of what UCI Regulation 2.3.036 actually means (just like lawyers would do!). Gotta love it!

The takeaway from this is clearly that the UCI’s rules on the subject are poorly-written and inconsistently enforced. In light of that, did the officials react properly?

On one hand disqualification might be viewed as overly harsh, because sprints are aggressive, unpredictable, and dangerous. It’s the nature of the beast. Renshaw didn’t do a lot of things that would have resulted in relegation alone. He didn’t take his hands off the bars to push or punch Dean. And he didn’t swerve into Julian Dean and take him across the road – which would have put the whole pack in jeopardy.

On the other hand, Tour organizers have limited options for disciplining a lead-out man that would act as a deterrent or penalty. Relegation is irrelevant, because it doesn’t matter where he finishes as long as his teammate wins. Organizers could levy a fine, but fines at the Tour (for feeding when you shouldn’t, hanging on the car, etc.) are pretty much the cost of doing business. And it’s not like you can suspend a rider for one day – like they do in baseball or basketball - or say he has to ride at the back of the pack for the whole stage. So even if disqualification is too harsh for the offense, the other options are essentially meaningless.

Who’s the real loser in all of this? Mark Cavendish. He won today’s stage, but in the process lost the man who has led him to three stage wins this year. He’ll miss Renshaw in the remaining sprint finishes, especially the final one on the Champs Elysees – which Renshaw helped him win last year.