Mark Cavendish’s Tour record hopes brought to an end as Briton crashes out

LIBOURNE – Mark Cavendish’s hopes of breaking the record for stage wins at the Tour de France ended in cruel fashion on Saturday, when the Briton crashed out of the 2023 race, which he has long said will be his last.

Denmark’s Mads Pedersen won the eighth stage – a 200.7-km ride from Libourne to Limoges – as his compatriot Jonas Vingegaard retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey.

Cavendish, who will retire at the end of the year, fell off his bike with 64km left, and was taken into an ambulance for checks before his withdrawal was made official by race organisers.

The Astana-Qazaqstan rider was looking to become the only man with 35 stage wins on the world’s greatest cycling race, to beat the record he shares with Belgian great Eddy Merckx, who had 34 victories from 1969 to 1975.

On Friday, Cavendish came close to achieving his goal when he took second place in the seventh stage in Bordeaux after suffering a mechanical problem in the final straight.

The 38-year-old Briton held his right arm after crashing on Saturday, and then held his head in disbelief as he climbed into the race ambulance where doctors strapped his shoulder.

His withdrawal was effectively confirmed when the ambulance’s door was slammed shut, bringing a close to a remarkable Tour de France adventure that started in 2007.

Said Trek rider Pedersen on the unfortunate crash: “For me, it was a pleasure to be able to ride with Mark Cavendish. I always had a good relationship with him in the peloton.

“It’s so sad for a legend to finish the Tour like this. He still owes me a jersey, for a jersey swop. Hopefully, I can do some of the last races he does.”

Cavendish, who started as a self-described “boy who wanted to fight the world”, won his first stage in Chateauroux in 2008, bursting into the limelight as he claimed another three victories that year.

Cavendish has repeatedly proclaimed his love for a race that gave him the best moments of his career, but also the most heartbreaking one on Saturday.

While he was beaten three times in bunch sprints by Belgian Jasper Philipsen, Cavendish clocked the fastest speed in two of them, showing his last Tour would not just be an easy farewell ride.

It ended in the most brutal fashion in a crash that noboby saw coming in the haze of a sunny afternoon before the expected final sprint on a mostly flat stage.

Cavendish’s withdrawal comes on the day Philipsen was beaten for the first time in a sprint in 2023 as the Belgian took second place behind former world champion Pedersen. Belgian Wout van Aert finished third.

“Even with long sprint, I still had the legs to finish it off,” Pedersen said.

“The final stretch was very painful. I was very close to sit up with 50m to go. Jasper had to do a great sprint to overtake me. Yet it doesn’t matter winning by a large margin or by a small one. Regardless of this, it’s beautiful to win at the Tour.”

Defending champion Vingegaard kept a 25-second advantage over Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia, with Australian Jai Hindley 1min 34sec off the pace in third place.

Sunday’s stage 9 is a 182.5km ride from Saint-Leonard-de-Noblat to Puy de Dome. REUTERS