Mark Cavendish sat out the Tour de France on Saturday after a 140km crash on stage eight left the star British cyclist with what appeared to be a broken collarbone.
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Cavendish, 38, was competing in his last Tour de France in an effort to break the all-time record of 34 stage wins he shares with Eddy Merckx.
The Astana driver was pale-faced as medics closed the ambulance door on his attempt to set the new record that narrowly escaped him on the seventh stage in Bordeaux on Friday.
On his way to victory on the banks of the River Garonne, Jasper Philipsen slipped off his chain and passed him to the finish, depriving him of a historic stage win.
Cavendish burst onto the Tour de France map in 2008 with his first four victories when he was just 23 years old.
Its iconic celebrations were drenched in bravado and received such good television coverage that it attracted a new generation of sports fans.
A student of the fine art of sprinting led and a bullish competitor, the Isle of Man native matched Merckx on 34 wins in 2021.
He missed the cut in 2022, but switched teams for 2023, where he seemed capable of taking the all-important stage he worked so hard for.
(AFP)
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