"He always will be welcome, with or without his bike" - Christian Prudhomme reacts to Mark Cavendish's Tour de France abandon

Mark Cavendish has seen his quest to become the outright record holder of the most Tour de France stage wins come to a heartbreakingly premature end after a crash on stage 8 forced the Astana Qazaqstan sprinter to abandon the race.

Christian Prudhomme, the race director of the Tour de France since 2007 has seen the evolution of Cavendish's career from his days HTC Columbia to this year. Speaking to ITV he gave his reaction to the sad news.

"It is a very emotional day. He was so sad just after the fall," Prudhomme explains. "He is the greatest sprinter in the history of the Tour de France. He wanted to try to win the 35th stage and he was second yesterday (stage 7 e.d) and we thought he would succeed in doing his goal but today it's over."

"He's sad, we are sad, the Tour de France is sad. He is so important for the Tour, I remember a few years ago when we were in the Alps and he was alone, far far behind the pack. He wanted to end the stage and we had to ask the police to not close the road because Mark Cavendish was on his bike and he was so respectful of the Tour. Mark deserves the respect of the Tour, he always will be welcome, with or without his bike."