Mark Cavendish was supposed to blast to victory on the first stage of the Tour de France in his mother’s home town, but a horror crash put him in hospital and left German Marcel Kittel celebrating on Saturday.
The 29-year-old Briton slammed into the tarmac within sight of the finish and, although he limped over the line, a medical bulletin said he had dislocated his right shoulder.
Yesterday, his Omega Pharma-QuickStep team said he would not be able to start the second stage between York and Sheffield.
Photo: Reuters
“Mark had a sleepless night and it’s absolutely impossible for him to start. The ligaments binding the shoulder and the collarbone have been hit. We don’t know what he has precisely, but he cannot continue,” team manager Patrick Lefevere told journalists. “He a hard-boiled guy, but he’s devastated.”
The Manx Missile was perfectly placed to seize the maillot jaune for the first time in his illustrious career after his team led him out along Harrogate’s sunlit Parliament Street.
With huge crowds cheering him on, he tangled with Australia’s Simon Gerrans and the two riders crashed spectacularly to the ground. Cavendish winced in pain and clutched his right shoulder.
Photo: EPA
After finally crossing the line 3 minutes, 37 seconds after Kittel, he was whisked straight to the team bus and later taken to hospital.
Kittel, who also won the first stage last year as well as three others, avoided the mayhem to snatch victory, easily outsprinting Slovakia’s Peter Sagan and Lithuania’s Ramunas Navardauskas.
Defending champion Chris Froome was sixth.
Kittel was presented with the race leader’s maillot jaune by the Duchess of Cambridge, who also cut the tape at the ceremonial start at the 18th century Harewood House.
“It was so hard,” said the Giant-Shimano rider, who last year beat Cavendish 4-2 in stage wins. “The hill in the last kilometer made it very difficult to win.”
Cavendish, aiming for a 26th Tour de France stage victory, seemed too eager to succeed in the closing stages and, using his shoulders for extra leverage, appeared to sway toward Gerrans, bringing both of them down.
“I’m gutted about the crash today,” Cavendish said. “It was my fault. I’ll personally apologize to Simon Gerrans as soon as I get the chance. In reality, I tried to find a gap that wasn’t really there. I wanted to win today, I felt really strong and was in a great position to contest the sprint thanks to the unbelievable efforts of my team. Sorry to all the fans that came out to support — it was truly incredible.”
A sensational 190.5km opening stage from Leeds took the 198 riders across the spectacular Yorkshire Dales and included three categorized climbs.
Jens Voigt made it a great day for Germany as the 42-year-old veteran, part of a three-man breakaway with Frenchmen Nicolas Edet and Benoit Jarrier, went off alone after the intermediate sprint.
As the Trek Factory Racing rider powered up the Cote de Buttertubs, in what is his record 17th and last Tour, massed ranks of fans gave the impression of a mountain-top finish in the Alps.
Voigt was eventually reeled in, but his reward was the polka dot jersey for the king of the mountains classification.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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