Tour de France: Mark Cavendish crashes out of his final Tour de France - did he break the stage win record?

Mark Cavendish is out of his final Tour de France following a crash on stage eight.

The crash comes just a day after the Manxman came within a few metres of what would have been a record-breaking 35th career Tour stage victory in Bordeaux, he was forced to abandon the race after hitting the deck with around 60km remaining of the 201km stage from Libourne to Limoges.

A touch of wheels in the peloton forced Cavendish down and he sat holding his shoulder before being helped into an ambulance, his anguish at being forced out of his final Tour in such circumstances obvious.

It means Cavendish, who announced in May that he will retire at the end of the season, will finish his career level with Eddy Merckx on 34 Tour stage wins.

Less than 24 hours earlier, Cavendish was agonisingly close to breaking the record, getting the jump on Jasper Philipsen on the sprint to the line in Bordeaux, only for his gears to jump when he was trying to apply full power.

Cavendish won four stages in the 2021 Tour, equalling Merckx’s record with his victory on stage 13 in Carcassonne.