Graeme Brown crossed the finish line in the first stage of the Post Danmark Tour in third place, but by the end of the day he had been relegated back to dead last, 114th, due to changing his line in the sprint.
The Australian Rabobank rider didn't contest the charges, with both him and Directeur Sportif Adri van Houwelingen admitting that Brown didn't sprint in a straight line.
Van Houwelingen was not entirely satisfied, though. "I have seen sprinters going outside of their lane during the Tour, but they still won, ask Oscar Freire. It might have been partly caused by the fact that a crash took place during the sprint. Brown, I believe, would have still been ranked in the stage results had that not happened," he said on the team's website, rabobank.nl.
Brown's disqualification allowed T-Mobile's Mark Cavendish to move up to third place. "Brown often rides beyond the limits in sprints," said T-Mobile DS Brian Holm on t-mobile-team.com. "The jury's decision was right."
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