Mark Cavendish’s final Tour de France has ended in heartbreak after the sprinter crashed out of the race during Saturday’s eighth stage.
Cavendish had been hoping to surpass the great Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 Tour stage wins and came within a whisker of doing so in Friday’s stage seven, denied in a sprint finish by Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen.
Less than 24 hours later, though, the 38-year-old’s race was ended after he was caught up in crash around three-quarters of the way through the 200km stage between Libourne and Limoges. The Astana rider was seen climbing into the back of a medical van, having appeared to injure his shoulder.
It caps a rotten run of luck for Cavendish, who blamed a mechanical issue for his narrow defeat in Bordeaux yesterday.
“Unfortunately, I had a problem with my gears when I was sprinting,” Cavendish said. “I went from the 11 [sprocket] to the 12 and had to sit down and go back to the 11. It was pretty devastating there, actually. It wasn’t good. I guess it’s not meant to be.”
