Cavendish crashes out of Tour de France in last attempt to take outright record for most stage wins

LIMOGES, France (AP) — Mark Cavendish will have to share the Tour de France record for most career stage wins at cycling's biggest race.

Competing in his final season, the ace sprinter from the Isle of Man who is known as “The Manx Missile,” crashed out of the race during the eighth stage on Saturday.

Cavendish equaled Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 Tour stage wins during the 2021 edition, 13 years after his first success, but was not selected last year.

This edition was his last chance to become the outright record-holder after he announced in May during the Giro d’Italia race that he will retire from cycling at the end of this season. Cavendish ended the Giro in style, winning the final stage in the historic center of Rome to post his 17th stage win at the Italian Grand Tour.

The British rider had finished second in Friday’s seventh stage of the Tour when Jasper Philipsen denied the rider a 35th stage win.

The 38-year-old former world champion hit the ground Saturday with 64 kilometers (40 miles) left while riding at the back of the peloton at about 45 kph (28 mph). TV images showed the veteran rider lying on the ground and then holding his right shoulder in pain.

Cavendish went inside an ambulance to receive treatment and looked ashen-faced before his retirement was announced.

Former world champion Mads Pedersen won the stage in a mass sprint.

“It’s so sad for a legend to finish the Tour like this,” Pedersen said. “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. Hopefully I can do some of the last races he does.”

Merckx amassed his wins in the 1960s and 70s, an era during which his domination was such that he earned the nickname of “The Cannibal.” Unlike Merckx — who did it a record five times — Cavendish has never won the Tour.

Cavendish became the fifth rider to abandon this year's race after Enric Mas, Richard Carapaz, Jacopo Guarnieri and Luis Leon Sanchez, who all crashed out. That became six toward the end of Saturday's stage when Belgian rider Steff Cras was caught in yet another pileup and retired.

Cavendish was not selected for last year’s edition of the Tour by his former Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team and joined the Astana-Qazaqstan team in January to extend his storied career by one season, hoping that he would add at least more more stage win to his tally.

Cavendish also won the Tour de France best sprinter’s green jersey twice. He has won stages at all three Grand Tour races — Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Spanish Vuelta — and became a world champion in 2011.

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