"It's really difficult for Mark, he'll be absolutely gutted" according to Adam Blythe from The Breakaway podcast

Every cycling fan was on the edge of their seat twice within 24 hours because of Mark Cavendish. On stage 7, we hoped that Manx Missile was finally going to claim his throne, while stage 8 was a bittersweet farewell for Cavendish, who left Tour de France in an ambulance. The Breakaway podcast discussed Cavendish's last moments at Tour de France.

"I'm just gutted, really gutted for him," said Blythe. "He's a bugger to be with, I'll tell you that for free! He's absolutely brilliant and he's one of the few people in the world that can take that much responsibility and deliver – and keep on delivering. It's really difficult for Mark, he'll be absolutely gutted."

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Robbie McEwen insisted "we have seen history" despite Cavendish's premature exit on cycling's biggest stage. "It's not the way we want to see a champion go out," said 12-time Tour stage winner McEwen.

"We want to see Mark go out on his own terms, whether it was with a stage win in this race or not, reaching the Champs-Elysees, being able to ride around there one last time would have been the right way to finish," McEwen adds.

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Mark Renshaw, Cavendish's former leadout man turned Astana Qazaqstan analyst, was also gutted at his departure. "I won't lie, I cried. Everyone in the team is hurting because there's a hell of a lot of work gone in," Renshaw said at the finish to Stage 8.

"Alexander Vinokourov took a chance on him and who would have thought in January that he would be here, running second in the Tour de France and then the next day crashing," Renshaw concludes.

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PREVIEW | Tour de France 2023 stage 9 - Return to historic Puy de Dôme climb the first big challenge in yellow for Jonas Vingegaard