Greig Leach

It had to be a heart breaking day for Mark Cavendish (OPQS), he had hoped to take a stage victory in his mom's home town with her looking on. While Cavendish has already racked up 25 stage victories in the Tour de France in his career to date, he has never pulled on a Malliot Jaune in the Tour. I am sure he envisioned receiving the Jersey from the Royals at the finishing line and riding through the stone wall lined country roads of England tomorrow. Instead, he tangled with Simon Gerrnas (Orica-GreenEdge) and the pair went sprawling across the asphalt miraculously only taking out one other member of the fast sprinting peloton. There where some worrying images of Cav writhing in pain being attended to by the race doctor before he was put back on the bike. For any one in the Tour, a rider must cross the finishing line in order to be allowed to start the following stage. So regardless of his injuries, if he hoped to line up in York, he needed to get himself across the line today.