Cavendish gives update on injury
DPA
· 13.07.2023
Following his withdrawal from the 2023 Tour de France, cycling star Mark Cavendish has undergone successful surgery and will be out of action for weeks.
Mark Cavendish on his injury
"It will take longer than the few weeks I had a broken collarbone due to screws from a previous operation," the Brit announced via Instagram. The 38-year-old did not give an exact downtime. Cavendish underwent surgery on Wednesday. Shoulder specialist Lennard Funk in Manchester inserted a plate into the broken collarbone.
The former world champion did not say a word about his future either. Cavendish wanted to win his 35th stage victory at this year's Tour and thus become the sole record holder ahead of Eddy Merckx. However, a crash on the eighth stage to Limoges forced him to abandon. Afterwards, his Astana team boss Alexandr Vinokourov offered him the chance to ride for another year and take part in the Tour de France again. "We were still joking about it that evening," said the former Telekom pro after Cavendish's withdrawal. However, the decision is up to the sprinter.
Mark Cavendish thanks for the sympathy
He expressed his gratitude for the worldwide support following his retirement. "It obviously wasn't the ideal way to finish the Tour. But that's part of the beauty and brutality of cycling," said Cavendish. The sympathy for his fate had given him a lot of courage.
Cavendish switched to Astana after the end of his contract with Quick Step in order to be able to take part in the Tour. The Kazakh racing team put together almost an entire team around the "Manx Missile". At the end of May, Cavendish announced during the Giro d'Italia that he wanted to end his career in the autumn. A few days later, he won the final stage of the Giro by a large margin in the sprint. At the Tour, he came close on the seventh stage in Bordeaux, but while leading, he suffered a problem with his gears a few metres before the finish and finished second.
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