Cavendish withdraws, Sagan gets the boot

VITTEL, France - Mark Cavendish has been forced out of the Tour de France after fracturing a shoulder blade in a serious crash caused by world champion Peter Sagan, who was disqualified from cycling's showcase event.

Hours after Tuesday's crash in a chaotic sprint finish to Stage 4, Cavendish's Team Dimension Data said on its Twitter feed that "Unfortunately, @MarkCavendish has been forced to withdraw from #TDF2017."

The British rider sustained hand and shoulder injuries in the crash, and was taken to a hospital for checks.

"I'm obviously massively disappointed to get this news about the fracture," Cavendish said. "The team was incredible today.

"They executed to perfection what we wanted to do this morning. I feel I was in a good position to win and to lose that and even having to leave the Tour, a race I have built my whole career around, is really sad."

The crash occurred about 50 meters from the end of the stage, when Sagan elbowed Cavendish, who was squeezed against the barriers to his right, out of the way.

Cavendish slammed into the barriers and two other riders plowed over the British sprint specialist, a winner of 30 Tour stages.

"Mark suffered a fracture to the right scapula," Team Dimension Data doctor Adrian Rotunno said. "Fortunately no surgery is required at this stage, and most importantly there is no nerve damage.

"He's been withdrawn from the race for obvious medical reasons, and we'll continue monitoring him over the coming days."

Race jury president Philippe Marien of the UCI said race rules allowed organizers to disqualify riders in "serious cases".

"We have decided to disqualify Peter Sagan from the 2017 Tour de France after the tumultuous sprint here in Vittel, where he endangered several riders, including Mark Cavendish and others who were involved in the crash," Marien said.

Apart from doping offenses, disqualifications are rare on the Tour. In 2010, Australian Mark Renshaw was thrown out for a head-butt that cleared a path in a sprint for his teammate Cavendish to win the stage in Bourg-Les-Valence.

"I get on with Peter well, but I don't get ... if he came across is one thing, but the elbow. I'm not a fan of him putting his elbow in me like that," Cavendish said.

"A crash is a crash, I'd just like to know about the elbow, really," Cavendish added. "I'd just like to speak to him about it."

After the crash, Sagan went over to see how Cavendish was and patted him on the back.

The Slovak said later he had apologized to Cavendish.

"It's not nice to crash like that," said Sagan, who finished the stage in second place behind Demare.

"It's the sprint. I just didn't know that Mark was behind me," Sagan added. "He was coming pretty fast from the back and after I just didn't have time to react, and he ran into the fence."

Associated Press