Mark Cavendish crashes out of Tour de France
Stage win record still shared with Eddy Merckx
Photo by:
Sirotti
The day after just missing out on setting the record for Tour de France stage victories, Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) crashed out of the 110th edition on Saturday’s eighth stage. The record of 34 stages is still shared with Eddy Merckx. The Brit crashed along with Pello Bilbao with 62 km remaining. By the way he was holding his shoulder, it seemed that he had injured his collarbone.
?? RACE: @LeTour @markcavendish crashed 60 km from finish with Pello Bilbao and was forced to abandon. He left the race in the ambulance. Updates will follow as soon as there is more news#TDF2023Â #AstanaQazaqstanTeam
— Astana Qazaqstan Team (@AstanaQazTeam) July 8, 2023
It was Cavendish’s final Tour before retirement. The record will continue to be shared.
Cavendish saw Jasper Philipsen come around him in the final 150 meters on Friday’s stage. The Manx Missile had been second, fifth and fourth in the three bunch sprints so far.
Earlier in Saturday’s stage from Libourne to Limoges, Cavendish had been part of a short-lived bridging effort initiated by Mathieu van der Poel.
Cavendish is Astana’s second rider to leave the race after LL Sanchez, who didn’t start stage 5.
The 38 year old was third in the points classification going into Saturday’s stage.
