"Mark Cavendish is really upset" - Mark Renshaw gives Astana reaction after relegation in stage 12 bunch sprint at Tour de France

Although Mark Cavendish wasn't truly in the fight for the stage win on stage 12 of the 2024 Tour de France, crossing the line in 5th, the Manx Missile was among two riders relegated by the race jury post-stage, along with Arnaud Demare.

"We're all obviously very disappointed," Astana Qazaqstan Team's sports director Mark Renshaw reflects post-stage in conversation with ITV Sport. "We think it was a solid, earned 5th place in that finish today. There were two decisions in the final there that the panel has taken, one of them affects us and Cavendish is really upset with this decision, as I am."

Cavendish was lacking a leadout man in the finale after Michael Morkov had been forced to abandon the Tour de France due to Covid. As such, the fact a 5th place has now been taken away makes the blow even tougher to take for the Astana Qazaqstan Team. "If we really analyse this move and break down this 50km, we can see that Dan McLay is leading out Demare," explains Renshaw. "If you stack it up against the white line you can see that he's parallel to the line. He finishes his leadout and moves to the left, in my estimation it's about 1.5m he moves to the left and stops pedalling. This move by McLay to completely stop pedalling probably deserves more of a sanction than what Mark Cavendish deserved."

"I as a leadout man know, that if you stop pedalling in a sprint like this, there will be a reaction. The reaction to McLay stopping pedalling was Cav moving to the left, also with Coquard hard on the wheel. I think both riders had already committed to jumping to the left. Cavendish is really upset and he's really angry about the decision because he believes it was unfair."

"We've had a really difficult day with Morkov going home this morning. Fedorov was not good at all today and dropped early in the stage. Lutsenko crashed with about 15km to go," Renshaw concludes, listing all of Astana Qazaqstan Team's woes for the day. "All in all to finish 5th with everything that happened, I think the team did exceptionally well. They showed big heart today."

See the sprint for yourself down below and make up your own minds!