EMBRUN, France (AFP) - Quadruple stage winner Mark Cavendish has pulled out of the Tour de France prior to the 15th stage, the first of three days in the Alps here Sunday, according to his Columbia team.
Cavendish has been one of the stars of the July 5-27 race so far, winning four bunch sprints to set a new British record for stage wins in a single edition. He was victorious on stages five, eight, 12 and 13.
But the 23-year-old from the Isle of Man admitted he was suffering fatigue following two tough weeks of racing.
"I've done enough here with four stages," said Cavendish.
"I'm a bit tired now. I've rode one Grand Tour at the Giro. Here I rode hard through the Pyrenees and was able to get a couple more results.
"Maybe if the green jersey was still in contention I'd carry on, but I'm 60 points behind now.
"I think the green jersey is out of contention now so it's better to go home and try and recover. I'll take a week's rest in the Isle of Man, then I'll start to concentrate on the Olympics."
Cavendish missed out on disputing a bunch sprint for the first time in the race when he was dropped on the small climb 10km from the finish line of Saturday's 14th stage, won by sprint rival Oscar Freire.
He will now set his sights on the Olympic Games, where he will compete for Britain in track cycling's Madison - an event in which he is reigning world champion with Bradley Wiggins.
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All you brits, all you can talk about is your pathetic four stage wins. I come from a country that has had a triple grand slam winner (Giro, The Tour and the world championships) in Stephen Roche, how many TDF winners has Britain, Oh none. And if you come back with that Sean Kelly never won the Tour, that is quite true but he did win a grand slam event The Vuelta which is more than Cavendish will ever win. He has a host of many classic wins Paris Nice 7 times consecutively. What I am basically saying is shut up there is nothing extraordinary in winning four stages it happens every year. Ye brits harp on about his exploits in the TDF because you cannot boast about a TDF winner ha ha ha. Whereas a small country like Ireland can beat you hands down there. Let Cavendish beat Sean Kelly's four green Jersey wins in the tour the France and then I may give him some credit. But to do this he will need to finish the race, good luck.
sensible move by cavendish, he's been brillant in the tour, he's still young and hopefully has many great tours ahead of him. Concentrate on the gold for the olympics which only come every four years. I'm sure he'll have many more tour stages and a green jersey by the 2012 olympics.
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