Mark Cavendish looked to take a stage and erase the oops of leading out no one earlier in the race. Look again though as he is penalized for being helped back to the peloton by his team car after the entire Rock Racing team crashed and took him with them 8km from the finish. Unsurprisingly Mark Cavendish was not happy:
a disappointed Cavendish told Cyclingnews. "It's just bullshit -- who is working on this f**king race? When you have every car in the peloton dropping back to get me on... like it has been in professional cycling for a hundred years... who is working on the jury here? What are you going to do, make it a f**cking crit every day?
Even Bob Stapleton had a few choice words about the incident "If Cipo was practically in the f**king car, but Mark comes from all the way back and wins... and that is something that has to be yanked, that is completely wrong" Considering the adjustment to the rules made last year to keep Levi in the yellow jersey following that early race crash, this does seem like a sketchy decision as Cavendish still needed to make his way through the peloton to the front AND win the bunch sprint to take the stage.
Kevin Hulsmans from Quick Step had a completely different kind of complaint after the time trial Friday. Apparently he was selected for the doping controls and when the controller came to get him the whole team was in the showers, so the controller waited right there for him to finish. Not a big deal except the controller was a woman. "We politely asked her to leave, but she refused. What were they thinking? That I would try to escape through the roof? Would they send a man to look at eight naked female athletes?"
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