Mark Cavendish is out of his final Tour de France following a crash on stage eight which was won by Denmark's Mads Pedersen.
A day after the Manxman came within a few metres of what would have been a record-breaking 35th career Tour stage victory in Bordeaux, he was forced to abandon the race after hitting the deck with around 60km remaining of the 201km stage from Libourne to Limoges.
A touch of wheels in the peloton forced Cavendish down and he sat holding his shoulder before being helped into an ambulance, his anguish at being forced out of his final Tour in such circumstances obvious.
💥@MarkCavendish has crashed, and is going to the ambulance. Heartbreaking for the Manx Missile 😢🚑@MarkCavendish a chuté et se dirige vers l'ambulance. C'est terrible pour le Manx Missile 😢🚑#TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/KZb6hsv7yT
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 8, 2023
It means Cavendish, who announced in May that he will retire at the end of the season, will finish his career level with Eddy Merckx on 34 Tour stage wins.
Less than 24 hours earlier, Cavendish was agonisingly close to breaking the record, getting the jump on Jasper Philipsen on the sprint to the line in Bordeaux, only for his gears to jump when he was trying to apply full power.
Cavendish won four stages in the 2021 Tour, equalling Merckx's record with his victory on stage 13 in Carcassonne.
Pedersen took the stage win, powering up the slight rise to the line and just hanging on to deny Jasper Philipsen a fourth victory of this Tour on the line.
Wout Van Aert, having done so much work for his team-mate Jonas Vingegaard in the mountains earlier in the week, came home in third.
Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar and Jai Hindley all finished in the front group to ensure no change in the podium places, but Simon Yates was caught in a late crash around six kilometres from the finish and lost 47 seconds, dropping from fourth to sixth overall, with brother Adam up to fifth as a result.
