Mark Cavendish crashed and broke his collarbone throughout Saturday’s eighth stage of the Tour de France. This means that he will have to share the record for most career stage wins at cycling’s biggest race.
Cavendish, who was just 38 years old, fell Saturday, with forty miles left in the race. He was riding at the back of the group, going about 28 mph, when he fell. The experienced rider was seen on TV lying on the ground and holding his right shoulder in pain.
Before he was told he was retiring, he went into an ambulance to get help and had a sad look on his face. A team rep said that Cavendish was taken to a hospital in Perigueux, France, and that he will have surgery soon.
“Mark Cavendish’s right collarbone was broken. “Because of the break, an ostesynthesis screw in the acromioclavicular joint is loose,” his Astana-Qazaqstan team declared in a statement.
Since he fell during the 2017 Tour de France, when the screw was put in his shoulder.
Gianni Moscon, who is also on Cavendish’s team, said that the experienced rider had to stop quickly because of a crash in front of him.
“Someone changed lanes, and he just hit the back wheel of the person in front of him and fell,” Moscon said. “It was not good at all. I stayed with him to see how he was doing, but he couldn’t keep going, so we had to go back to the rest of the racers.
In the 2021 Tour, 13 years after his first victory, Cavendish tied Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 stage wins. He wasn’t chosen for the race last year.
The former world champion declared in May during the Giro d’Italia that he will stop riding at the end of the season. This was his last chance to break the record by himself. Cavendish won the last stage of the Giro in the famous center of Rome, giving him his 17th stage win at the Italian Grand Tour.
The British rider known as “The Manx Missile” came in second place in Friday’s stage because Jasper Philipsen stopped him from winning his 35th stage.
Merckx won most of his races in the 1960s and 1970s, when he was so dominant that he was called “The Cannibal.” Merckx did it five times, which is a record. Cavendish, on the other hand, has never won the Tour while focusing in sprints.
Since the debut of the Tour in 2007, Cavendish has finished 206 stages and won 16.5% of them, according to race data.
Following Enric Mas, Richard Carapaz, Jacopo Guarnieri, and Luis Leon Sanchez all crashed out of this year’s race, Cavendish was the fifth rider to quit. At the end of Saturday’s stage, Belgian rider Steff Cras was involved in another pileup and had to quit the race.
Cavendish’s previous team, Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, did not pick him for last year’s Tour. He joined Astana-Qazaqstan in January to add one more season to his long and successful career, hoping to win at least one more stage.
He also won the green jersey for best runner at the Tour de France twice. He has won stages at the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and the Spanish Vuelta. In 2011, he won the world championship.
Cavendish’s retirement comes on the same day that Mads Pedersen won the stage and Philipsen lost in a sprint for the first time this year. The Belgian rider came in second, behind Mads Pedersen, who won the stage. Wout van Aert of Belgium came in third.
“It’s awful for a legend to end the Tour like that,” Pedersen said about Cavendish. “It was great fun for me to ride with Mark Cavendish. In the pack, I always got along well with him. I hope I can join him in some of his last races.”
Jonas Vingegaard, the defending winner, kept the yellow jersey for overall leader. He had a 25-second lead over Tadej Pogacar, and Australian Jai Hindley was in third place, 1:34 behind.
About 3.5 miles from the finish line, British racer Simon Yates crashed and lost 47 seconds. He dropped from fourth place to sixth, and his twin brother Adam is now in fifth.
“It’s a terrible, terrible shame. “Everyone wanted him to try for one more win,” said Pogacar.
