San Francisco Frontiers - Crash ends Cavendish Tour de France record quest

The 38-year-old sprint specialist was forced to exit after suffering a suspected broken collarbone in a fall about 60km from the finish line in stage eight.

Cavendish was racing in what is likely to be his final Tour de France in an effort to break the all-time record of 34 stage wins he shares with Belgian great Eddy Merckx.

The Astana rider remained on the road for a couple of minutes rolling in agony every time he reached towards his right shoulder.

Medics were swiftly on the scene and lifted him into an ambulance placing smelling salts under his nose and applying balm on his road burns.

Cavendish was ashen-faced as doctors closed the ambulance door with organisers later confirming his withdrawal.

On Friday, his bid to set the new record escaped him by a whisker on stage seven at Bordeaux.

The exit is all the sadder given the peloton was speeding up to over 50kph attempting to catch an escape with another bunch sprint possible at Limoges.

Cavendish burst on to the Tour de France map in 2008 with his first four wins when he was just 23-years-old.

His celebrations made such good television he attracted a new generation of fans to the sport.

- Bullish competitor -

A student of the fine art of the sprint lead out and a bullish competitor the Isle of Man native matched Merckx on 34 wins in 2021.

He missed the cut in 2022 but changed teams for 2023 where he appeared capable of clinching the all important stage for which he strived so hard.

Although Cavendish originally said this would be his final Tour de France he left the door open to another year on the eve of this tour.

"I'm still racing, still loving it, and I'll keep doing it until I stop," he said.

"The biggest thing I can say is never give up, do what you want and enjoy it, but commit to it. It's a good rule to live by."

Cavendish appeared to be about to bag a record-breaking 35th win on Friday at Bordeaux where he hit almost 75kph before a chain slip allowed Jasper Philipsen to burst back past him.

He was also in the mix on the two other stages that ended in mass bunch sprints.

The Manx Missile reached 73kph at one point on the first bunch sprint on stage three in Bayonne, where he came sixth. No rider had gone faster on the Tour until he himself smashed that on Friday.

At the Nogaro motorbike racetrack on stage four he came fifth, and said he had been blocked by a fall as the 25-year-old Philipsen won a second straight stage.

A Netflix television crew for a series to be aired in August has been following Cavendish's every move.

E.Walker--SFF