Cavendish pulls out of Tour de France

5:29pm Sunday 20th July 2008

Britain's record-breaking cyclist Mark Cavendish has pulled out the Tour de France ahead of the forthcoming mountain stages.

The 23-year-old has won four stages in this year's race, each time in a last-ditch sprint to the finish, becoming the first Briton in history to claim more than two victories in a single year.

As expected, he struggled during previous stages in the Pyrenees, and with the Tour set to climb into the Alps on Sunday, he has decided not to jeopardise his Olympic hopes next month by pushing himself through more misery in the mountains.

After victories on stages five, eight, 12 and 13, the racer from the Isle of Man was too tired to pull himself to the front of the peloton on Saturday and finished over three minutes behind sprint winner Oscar Freire.

Cavendish will now have plenty of time to recover ahead of his participation in the Madison event at the Beijing Games.