Mark Cavendish is out of this year’s Tour de France after suffering a broken shoulder following a clash with Slovakian racer Peter Sagan. Cavendish and Sagan came together during the final sprint of Tuesday’s fourth stage, an incident which resulted in the Brit crashing into the barriers. Sagan was disqualified from the rest of the Tour after the collision, a ruling that his team, BORA-Hansgrohe, initially protested before race organisers decided not to allow an appeal. Riding for Dimension Data, Cavendish was coming up fast on Sagan’s right-hand side during the final few hundred metres of the stage when the Slovakian appeared to flick out an elbow, causing the 32-year-old Brit to crash into the barriers, before falling into the path of oncoming riders. Doctors have confirmed Cavendish will not need surgery on the injury, and there is no nerve damage. The Manxman, who won Olympic silver in the Rio 2016 omnium, had set his sights on breaking the all-time stage wins record at Le Tour, where he currently sits four behind five-time race winner Eddy Merckx, who has 34. Cavendish has spent the past three months battling glandular fever brought on by the Epstein-Barr virus and expressed his dismay at being ruled out of the Tour, but hailed the efforts of his team-mates. "I'm obviously massively disappointed to get this news about the fracture," he said. "The team was incredible. They executed to perfection what we wanted to do this morning. "I feel I was in a good position to win, and to lose that and even having to leave the Tour – a race I have built my whole career around – is really sad." The stage was won by French rider Arnaud Demare, while Cavendish’s fellow Brit Geraint Thomas retains the yellow jersey going into the fifth stage despite an earlier crash of his own.
Sportsbeat 2017