Friday: No mail but a little helmet rubbing....and a sacrifical goat!

This Friday has found me away from COMO CYCO headquarters and on a mission!  The GEEC, dog and I have actually driven to Defiance, Missouri and are planning on paying Councilman Brazil (the individual who is attempting to ban cycling there) a little visit.  You see, the COMO CYCO dog busted into the pantry last night and ate his weight in pork rinds.  I'm guessing right about now, that greasy-mass of porky goodness is about at the level of his descending colon....and I've heard Councilman Brazil has the greenest front lawn this side of the Mississippi.......However, that means I'm forced to write this from the road....so no Friday Mail today.  I can practically feel the collective exhalation of your disappointment on the back of my neck as I write....oh wait, that was the dog.....I think Mt. 'Pup'ei is getting ready to blow.

Thus I will simply leave you with some interesting news and commentary from yesterday's stage of the Tour de France.  As I'm sure everyone interested has heard by now, Mark Renshaw, leadout man for Cavendouche, was kicked out of the Tour de France after some antics he pulled at the end of Stage 11.

That's Renshaw (HTC Columbia) on the right getting cuddly and resting his weary head on Julian Dean's shoulder (Garmin) as they race toward the finish.  Apparently the race officials thought this less an amorous act and more like something you would see in the WWF or in a keirin race.

Immediately after "rubbing helmets" with Dean three times, Renshaw looked over his shoulder, found Tyler Farrar, and then merged over the width of two cyclists across the road to nearly put him into the barrier, thus eliminating his momentum and forcing him to lose the wheel of Mark Cavendish.  Renshaw was kicked out of the race before Garmin could even issue a protest, to which Renshaw responded by saying:

 “Cavendish is 10 times the sprinter that Tyler Farrar is. Farrar is just flapping around the place, making up the numbers. I can’t see him winning a sprint, The only way they could win is if they take us out. I think that is the attitude Garmin has. I’ve read reports that they said the disqualification was justified and that my actions were intentional. I think it’s pretty harsh and I won’t speak with anyone from Garmin anymore.”

Interestingly, Robbie McEwen weighed in on his interpretation of what happened with this string of comments on Twitter:

@mcewenrobbie: “1) History shows that a headbutt will get dq’d from stg result (mcewen2005,Zabel 97) 2) History also shows that looking over shoulder at rival then taking them to barriers will also get u dq’d from stg results. 3) History will now show that combining the 2 aforementioned tactics will get u sent home…greater than the sum of it’s parts.”

Luckily for the race leader, Shleck, someone gave him a baby goat to sacrifice before the start to bring him good fortune.

Luckily for the goat, Shleck noticed too much resemblence between himself and the goat to be able to do the deed...