Seems like he deliberately wanted to miss the final. No way it's a time-wasting tactic, if he wanted he could have done something else silly and get a yellow at the most. The whole thing smells fishy. I suspect match-fixing could have been in play, and he could have been threatened not to appear in the final. I feel this whole thing warrents a thorough investigation.
"I don't know if he had a childhood trauma involving a man in a flourescent yellow coat."
Eurosport's Gary Imlach suggests