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That was in 1994, no? He was a neo-pro, so normal for them to not finish the Tour and drop out after ten day or so. The Worlds were much earlier in the year then too (in fact I think it was the last year they were in August).
andyp-
No idea. Did he finish any of the other Tours he raced?
My point is, it's not unprecedented and it seems to be only non-Italian sprinters copping it for "disrespecting the race"?
EDIT:
Finished 2 out of 8
8 1999 Tour de France 119 5
7 1998 Vuelta a España DNF 91
6 1998 Tour de France DNF 1
5 1997 Vuelta a España DNF 37
4 1997 Tour de France DNF 1
3 1996 Tour de France 39 2
2 1995 Tour de France DNF DNF
1 1994 Tour de France DNF 1
hippy
It's not just sprinters either. In his GCN doco, Boardman said he had an agreement to only stay for 10 stages of the TDF so he could go for the win in the prologue and then bugger off to concentrate on the Worlds or something.