Australian Mark Renshaw has been kicked off the Tour de France after being found guilty of deliberately head-butting New Zealander Julian Dean, Australia's media reported on Friday.
In a dramatic final 250 meters of a mad-scramble sprint finish into Bourg-les-Valance of France in stage 11 of the Tour, Renshaw lent across and struck Dean three times with his helmet in trying to shift the New Zealander out of his ground.
The move was designed to open up a gap for HTC-Columbia team- mate Mark Cavendish. Dean, a key lead out man on Matt White's Garmin-Transitions squad, was leading out American team-mate Tyler Farrar to contest the bunch sprint.
Renshaw's actions appeared to hold up Farrar and that was how the race officials saw it.
Renshaw is the first Australian to face action for interference since Robbie McEwen head-butted Stuart O'Grady in 2005.
According to The Australian, that day McEwen was deemed to be the guilty party and was disqualified from the stage, but unlike the action taken against Renshaw, was also fined a few hundred Swiss francs and were legated to last place on the stage.
Race director Jean-Francois Pescheaux, on reviewing the footage of the finish, deemed Renshaw's actions reckless and dangerous.
"Renshaw hit (Dean) with his head, much like (you see) in a keirin. But we are in the sport of cycling, we are not in combat," Pescheaux told The Australian News after the race stewards inquiry.
"They all could have ended up on their backs today. We can not accept that."
According to Agence France-Presse, Britain's Mark Cavendish dominated the controversial bunch sprint on the 11th stage of the Tour de France on Thursday that led to the disqualification of his team-mate Mark Renshaw.
Luxembourg's Andy Schleck, of Saxo Bank, retained the yellow jersey with his lead of 41sec on Spain's Alberto Contador intact after a 184.5km race between Sisteron and here.
Cavendish, the winner of six stages in 2009 and four in 2008, has now won three stages in this year's race, taking his career tally to an impressive 13.