Mark Cavendish out of Tour de France, Peter Sagan disqualified

Mark Cavendish is out of the Tour de France and World champion Peter Sagan has been thrown out after a crash at the end of stage 4.

Cavendish was forced to withdraw due to injuries sustained in the incident during the stage 4 finale, as he was sent crashing into the advertising hoardings. It was initially thought Cavendish may be able to continue, however x-rays have confirmed a broken shoulder which ends any hopes of surpassing the record number of stage wins at le Tour for the Manxman this year.

Sagan's fate was sealed after the race jury ruled he had caused Mark Cavendish to crash in the finale of today's Stage 4 in Vittel.

The Bora-Hansgrohe rider, winner of yesterday's Stage 2 and second to Arnaud Demare of FDJ today, was a red-hot favourite to win the green jersey for a record-equialling sixth time in a row.

Initially, the race jury imposed a 30-second time penalty on the Slovak and docked him 80 points in the points classification.

But after continuing to study video footage, they later announced:  "We've decided to disqualify Peter Sagan from the Tour de France 2017,"

Cavendish's close friend - and former sports director at HTC-Columbia and Omega Pharma-Quick Step - Rolf Aldag had earlier called for Sagan to be excluded from the race.

Time to step up #UCI. This was not a race accident. Violence. Hard to DQ a world champion from #letour, but needs to be done.

— Rolf Aldag (@RolfAldag) July 4, 2017

Sorry, badly explained. Crash isn't the problem. Elbow into face=violence= out=correct. Renshaw headbutting 2010= violence= out= correct pic.twitter.com/oBWEgRhelt

— Rolf Aldag (@RolfAldag) July 4, 2017