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Mark Cavendish is out of the Tour de France after crashing during stage eight on Saturday.
Widely regarded as cycling’s greatest sprinter of all time, Cavendish came into this year’s Tour level on 34 stage wins with Belgian legend Eddy Merckx.
Jasper Philipsen denied Cavendish a record-breaking 35th stage win during stage seven on Friday.
Cavendish was involved in an innocuous crash with Pello Bilbao 60km from the finish of Saturday’s 200.7km transitional stage between Libourne and Limoges.
He suffered a suspected broken collarbone and went into an ambulance, with his team Astana Qazaqstan confirming he was forced to abandon the race.
The Tour added: “Heartbreaking for the Manx Missile.”
Cavendish is the fifth rider to abandon this year’s Tour after Enric Mas, Richard Carapaz, Jacopo Guarnieri and Luis Leon Sanchez, with all those withdrawals due to crashes.
It marks the seventh time from 14 appearances that Cavendish, who made his Tour debut in 2007, has not finished the race.
After a two-year absence, and having not won a Tour stage since 2016, he returned in 2021 to win four and move level with five-time Tour winner Merckx.
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