Mark Cavendish’s bid to take a record-breaking 35th Tour de France stage win is over after he was forced to abandon the race following a crash on Saturday.
Less than 24 hours after he came within a few metres of an historic victory in Bordeaux, Cavendish’s outstanding Tour career ended in the back of an ambulance, the anguish on his face clear to see after an innocuous touch of wheels brought an early end to his final appearance in the race he loves.
Cavendish went down hard and lay holding his shoulder after a crash in the peloton around 60km from the finish of stage eight from Libourne to Limoges.
💔 Mark… #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/7CXUazZrbO
— 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.
Cavendish was agonisingly close to breaking the record on Friday, 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.
While hugely disappointed after Friday’s stage, Cavendish had also spoken optimistically regarding both his form and the cohesion of his Astana-Qazaqstan team’s lead-out train, which is learning on the job in this Tour.
Asked if he felt he was capable of winning a stage, he said: “I think so.”
It is not just the opportunity of the record that Cavendish has lost with Saturday’s crash.
He has had a long love affair with the Tour and could be seen throughout the opening week taking the opportunity to soak up the admiration of fans at the roadside and enjoy something of a lap of honour.
In recent years when it came to contract negotiations, Cavendish fought to end his storied career on his terms, and the timing of his retirement announcement in May was made with the Tour in mind.
However, there was another cruel twist to come.
Cavendish won his first Tour stages back in 2008, taking four in total, and would be up to 20 by 2011.
He enjoyed four stage wins in 2021, equally Merckx’s record with his victory on stage 13 in Carcassonne.
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