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Mark Cavendish crashes out of Tour after just one stage

Manxman misses part of the TdF for the first time since 2008 following dislocated shoulder

Mark Cavendish has pulled out of the Tour de France just one stage in, having dislocated his shoulder in a crash.

The 29 year old's future was in doubt last night and this morning Omega Pharma-QuickStep team confirmed that he would not be in the starting line-up for the York to Sheffield second stage today.

The team said the Manxman was suffering from a separated AC joint after colliding with Orica-GreenEdge rider Simon Gerrans in a crash that only a handful of riders managed to avoid, with Giant Shimano’s Marcel Kittel going on to take the victory and with it, the race lead and the yellow jersey, just as he did 12 months ago in Corsica.

"I'm gutted about the crash today," Cavendish told TalkSport last night.

"It was my fault. I'll personally apologise 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."

The last time Cavendish left the Tour early was in 2008 when he moved aside to prepare for the Beijing Olympics.
Now only three Britons remain in the race: Team Sky's Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas and Simon Yates for Orica-GreenEdge.

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15 comments

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Shades | 9 years ago
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Real shame; he'll be missed. All seemed relatively 'organised' at the front up until the Cancellara break, although the OPQS 'train' seemed to be fading a bit. The TV picture went with Cancellara, but when you got to see the front of the bunch again, it had disintegrated into chaos. Kittel seemed to have a bit of a lead out(?) and a nice clear path (on the inside) with Sagan. Even with a clear track I'm not sure Cav would have caught Kittel. Kittel is a complete 'beast' of a sprinter and, from what you catch on TV, seems like a nice bloke. There's always been the odd comment that it wasn't a perfect Cav road profile, but perhaps everyone was ignoring it for fear of being defeatist. Recall a brief interview with Cav after the final 2013 stage where he said the power levels he was generating were way higher than previous years and Kittel had still won. Seems like the 'bar' is higher at the moment.

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newbie roadie | 9 years ago
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Ouch! This injury hurts like he'll. Having to ride home, and then driving with one arm to the hospital sucks too!
I was looking forward to seeing you at stage 2 finish line today, in the flesh. Speedy recovery Cav.

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mikroos | 9 years ago
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Karma!

He's a great sprinter but this time he got what he asked for.

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glynr36 replied to mikroos | 9 years ago
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mikroos wrote:

Karma!

He's a great sprinter but this time he got what he asked for.

Karma? How so?

Just a racing incident, happens in the bunch.

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mikroos replied to glynr36 | 9 years ago
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glynr36 wrote:
mikroos wrote:

Karma!

He's a great sprinter but this time he got what he asked for.

Karma? How so?

Just a racing incident, happens in the bunch.

It's not just an incident when you can clearly determine who is to blame and when the same thing happens over and over again to the same guy, who clearly has no respect for the safety of other riders in the peloton.

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JonD replied to mikroos | 9 years ago
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mikroos wrote:
glynr36 wrote:
mikroos wrote:

Karma!

He's a great sprinter but this time he got what he asked for.

Karma? How so?

Just a racing incident, happens in the bunch.

It's not just an incident when you can clearly determine who is to blame and when the same thing happens over and over again to the same guy, who clearly has no respect for the safety of other riders in the peloton.

Except that I don't believe it's as clear you think. From two camera angles (above and from front left) Sagan moves across to the right, whilst Cavendish is the same distance from the white line - pretty much on Sagans wheel til Sagan starts moving over away from the line. Gerrans looks to be maybe a 1/2 wheel ahead of Cav(if that) but tries to move across to follow Sagan. Cav leans into Gerrans to maintain his road position and it goes pear-shaped (looks like Cavs wheel swerves off-line after they touch to meet Gerran's wheel. So not so much Cav going for a gap that isn't there as much as Gerrans trying to close the door when hes not far enough ahead to do so.

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hampstead_bandit | 9 years ago
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Speaking as someone who has suffered this injury on both shoulders its not going to be a quick recovery and the first time is very painful with some strong drugs administered in hospital and sometimes a number of medical practitioner required to perform the procedure

I've fractured a number of bones over the years and would prefer a fracture to a shoulder dislocation in terms of the initial pain and the recovery

Good luck to Cav with his recovery, he may look at surgery as often its never the same after the first incident.

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banzicyclist2 | 9 years ago
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Gutted.... utterly gutted! I wish Mark a speedy and complete recovery.

It was an amazing day yesterday, I saw the race go through Silsden today. Incredible atmosphere, loved every second of it.

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Airzound | 9 years ago
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Sad sad news.

GWS.

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Gkam84 | 9 years ago
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This is the tweet yesterday when I knew he wasn't going to be starting today

https://twitter.com/CaleyFretz/status/485486866209439744

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Markus | 9 years ago
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A dislocated shoulder can sometimes be put back in place if you find the right guy to do it.

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fukawitribe replied to Markus | 9 years ago
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Markus wrote:

A dislocated shoulder can sometimes be put back in place if you find the right guy to do it.

I doubt it's still dislocated (could be, odd though) - that normally gets reset pretty damn quickly - but there's more often than not a whole bunch of associated damage which can be bloody painful for a while. Gutted for the man either way.

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brackley88 replied to fukawitribe | 9 years ago
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fukawitribe wrote:
Markus wrote:

A dislocated shoulder can sometimes be put back in place if you find the right guy to do it.

I doubt it's still dislocated (could be, odd though) - that normally gets reset pretty damn quickly - but there's more often than not a whole bunch of associated damage which can be bloody painful for a while. Gutted for the man either way.

This injury is not really a shoulder dislocation as most people think of it. This is a separation of the joint between the collar bone and shoulder blade that sits over the top of your shoulder. A common rugby injury for example, from impact. The separation usually involves one or more of the ligaments holding the joint together tearing. It is not a case of popping it back in. It can require a lot of physio and if a major separation then surgery and a long recovery. Pulling on bars will be very difficult for some time. Particularly heavy loads as per sprinting.

Sympathy to Mark. I did this to my left shoulder and it was a long road.

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Gkam84 | 9 years ago
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The one time I put him in my purist team....

Sad news for him though

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zzgavin | 9 years ago
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via @tourdejose https://twitter.com/tourdejose/status/485713357593645056
Lefevere: "Mark can't lift his arm up. He can't pull on his handlebars. We took the decision at breakfast. It was hard." (NOS radio) #TDF

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