Cavendish wins another stage at Tour de France

Britain's Mark Cavendish, of HTC-Columbia, dominated a controversial bunch sprint to win the 11th stage of the Tour de France held over 179km between Sisteron and Bourge-les-Valence yesterday.

Luxembourg's Andy Schleck, of Saxo Bank, retained the yellow jersey with his lead of 41 seconds on Spain's Alberto Contador intact.

Cavendish has now won three stages in this year's race, taking his career tally to an impressive 13.

In doing so, the Isle of Man sprinter surpasses the 12-stage victory tally of several notable sprinters including German great Erik Zabel, Italian Mario Cipollini and Australian Robbie McEwen.

Cavendish's 13th victory in the race, however, will also be remembered for the controversy that led up to it.

As HTC-Columbia wound up the speed inside the final kilometre, Cavendish's lead-out man Mark Renshaw was shown by TV pictures to have tried to head-butt one of his rivals three times.

The Australian was thrown off the Tour at the end of the race.

Top race official Jean-François Pescheux said: "Renshaw was declassified immediately but we have decided to also throw him off the race. We've only seen the pictures once, but his actions are plain for all to see. This is a bike race, not a gladiator's arena."