News Round-up: Mark Cavendish crashes out of his final Tour de France

The Tour de France stage win record will not be broken by Mark Cavendish. The joint holder, on 34 stages and looking to take a record-breaking 35th, abandoned the race after crashing in the bunch. The fairytale end to Cavendish’s incredible career will not happen with this being his final participation in the race before his retirement at the end of the year. Read about it and more in today’s Edition…

| Mads Pedersen wins uphill sprint as Mark Cavendish crashes out of final Tour

Velo Collection (TDW) /Getty Images

Mads Pedersen takes his second Tour de France stage win

Stage 8 of the Tour de France was a 200km route with minimal elevation gain, but with hills in the finale and a slight drag to the line, it was one that could’ve been one for the breakaway or the sprinters. Several big names including Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-Quick Step), Edvald Boasson Hagen (TotalEnergies)and Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step) tried to get into the day's break, but eventually a group of three formed with Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies), Anthony Delaplace (Arkéa-Samsic) and Tim Declercq (Soudal-Quick Step).

The break of the day had gone and they were allowed to get a gap of nearly five minutes with the GC teams keeping an eye on things in the peloton behind. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took the points at the intermediate sprint behind the break and this surge of speed brought the time gap to the break down significantly. There were attacks from Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and others but none stuck.

Turgis decided to try and make it on his own and the lead group of three started to break apart. At around 60km to go, there was disaster as a crash in the bunch brought down Mark Cavendish. It was clear instantly that he was in a bad way as he was clutching his shoulder on the ground. He was seen to by the medical staff, but eventually he got into the ambulance and abandoned the race. In his final season as a pro and in his last Tour de France, Cavendish will not get his 35th stage win to break the outright record at the Tour de France. He will remain tied with Eddy Merckx.

The race kept rolling however and Turgis was now leading on his own after the break had collapsed. He had a small gap over the advancing peloton but he sat up when he saw it wasn’t going to be his day. A crash for Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla) with 5km to go saw him lose 47 seconds and drop to 6th on GC by the finish. Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) and Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) made a brief attack that came to nothing so it was down to the sprinters to contest the win.

Pedersen led the sprint from a long way out and the Dane had so much power that he was able to hold off Philipsen and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) on the line, the Belgian duo finishing second and third respectively.

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) finished safely in the bunch to retain his race lead ahead of a fearsome day for the GC favourites tomorrow with a summit finish atop the infamous Puy du Dôme.

| Blanka Kata Vas sprints to Giro Donne stage win

Velo Collection (Dario Belingheri) /Getty Images

Blanka Vas takes the win on stage 8

Stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia Donne saw the riders on the island of Sardinia after a rest day transfer. The 125km course was hilly but not enough to give the fast women any worries. Initially, there was not any kind of break established but after 30km, Alessia Vigilia (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) made an effort to get up the road on her own. She was joined by Petra Stiasny (Fenix-Deceuninck) but the duo never got much room with Movistar controlling the pace behind.

Mavi García (Liv Racing TeqFind) and Niamh Fisher-Black (SD Worx) also attempted to get away but failed and then it was Silvia Magri (Israel-Premier Tech Roland) and Floortje Mackaij’s (Movistar) turn and Mackaij showed her strength by riding Magri off her wheel. She went solo for a while and got a decent gap of over a minute on the peloton but up one of the climbs of the day, her lead was brought back down. Fisher-Black, Veronica Ewers (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) and Francesca Barale (dsm-firmenich) made the jump across to her and there was a group of four out front for a while but they were again brought back. Several more attacks came and went, including one by Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM), who managed to get away and eventually a group of ten riders went clear.

With 20km to go, however, the peloton was all back together in anticipation for a bunch sprint. Inge van der Heijden (Fenix-Deceuninck)and Carina Schrempf (Fenix-Deceuninck) made a last-ditch effort in the final three km to try and get to the line, but the sprinters were hot behind them. Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) made the first move in the sprint but she went too early and Blanka Vas (SD Worx) came through to take the win ahead of Chloe Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) and Liane Lippert (Movistar). Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) retains her nearly four-minute lead on GC going into tomorrow’s final stage.

STAT OF THE DAY

Mark Cavendish is undeniably the greatest sprinter of all time and will remain the joint record holder with Eddy Merckx on 34 stages after his abandonment in his final participation today. His first Tour win came in 2008 when he won on stage 5. He went on to win three more stages that year.
The following year in 2009 he won an incredible 6 stages including the final on the Champs-Élysées, where he would remain unbeaten for the next three years. After 2016 there was a hiatus in his wins at the Tour and many thought that his winning ways were over.
In 2021 he proved them wrong though and had one of sport’s greatest ever comebacks, winning four stages and the points jersey, ten years after he first won the competition. Cavendish may not get his fairytale 35th win, but he will go down in history as being the greatest sprinter the Tour de France has ever seen.

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