This edition was his last chance to become the outright record-holder after he announced in May during the Giro d’Italia that he will retire 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.
Known as “The Manx Missile” as he’s from the Isle of Man, Cavendish was second in Friday’s seventh stage. Unlike Merckx, who won a record five Tours, Cavendish has never won and specialized in the sprints.
The 38-year-old former world champion crashed with about 39 miles left while riding at the back of the peloton at about 28 miles per hour. TV images showed the veteran rider lying on the ground and holding his right shoulder in pain.
Cavendish’s teammate, Gianni Moscon, said he had to brake suddenly because of a crash in front of him “and someone changed line and he just hit the rear wheel of the guy in front of him and went down.”
“It was quite bad,” Moscon added. “I stayed with him but he wasn’t able to go on with the race so we had to go back in the peloton.”
Cavendish went into an ambulance for treatment and looked ashen-faced before his retirement from the race was announced.
With Cavendish out of the picture, former world champion Mads Pedersen claimed his second career stage win with a big burst of power to win a mass sprint.
Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard kept the yellow jersey after the 125-mile eighth stage from Libourne to Limoges in Central France.
Pedersen proved the strongest in the long final stretch of road leading to the finish line and the Danish rider held off a late challenge from Jasper Philipsen, who had won all three previous sprints this year.
“My boys gave me a perfect leadout,” said Pedersen, who rides for the Lidl-Trek team. “The final stretch was very painful. I still had the legs to finish it off.”
Wout Van Aert completed the stage podium in third.
Cavendish became the fifth rider to abandon this year after Enric Mas, Richard Carapaz, Jacopo Guarnieri, and Luis Leon Sanchez 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.
“It’s so sad for a legend to finish the Tour like this,” said Pedersen. “For me it was a pleasure to be able to ride with Mark Cavendish.”
Vingegaard spent the day well protected by his Jumbo-Visma teammates and kept his 25-second lead over two-time champion Tadej Pogacar in the general classification. Jai Hindley remained in third place, 1 minute, 34 seconds off the pace.
The pulsating duel between Pogacar and Vingegaard is expected to resume during Sunday’s ninth stage, which finishes with a spectacular climb to Puy-de-Dome, a famed volcanic crater in the Massif Central region of south-central France, which last hosted a stage 35 years ago.
The mountain is part of the Tour lore and all cycling fans cherish the memorable duel to the summit between French rivals Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor back in 1964. Anquetil went on that year to become the first five-time Tour winner.
The first rest day follows in Clermont-Ferrand on Monday.
With many riders interested in making the most of the flat profile of the first half of Stage 8 to break away, there was a flurry of attacks immediately after race director Christian Prudhomme waved the flag signaling the start.
But the peloton rode at full speed and thwarted the moves.
Veteran Belgian all-rounder Tim Declercq, a powerful rider usually excelling in chasing breakaways for the Soudal Quick-Step team, finally managed to get away from the bunch after 12.5 miles, accompanied by Frenchmen Anthony Delaplace and Anthony Turgis.
The sprinters’ teams were relieved to see the break limited to just three men, and finally slowed down to let them go.
The trio had a maximum lead of 4:40 and were ultimately reeled in during the finale after Vingegaard’s teammates stepped up the pace.
