Tour de France: Fan throws urine on Mark Cavendish

Mark Cavendish before the incident, which took place on the stage 13 time trial. Picture: Getty

The incident came during the 33km individual time trial to Mont-Saint-Michel, with the roads from Avranches lined with fans.

Cavendish was being jeered by some of those fans after the British national champion was embroiled in controversy on Tuesday night when a crash late on stage ten to Saint-Malo sent Tom Veelers to the floor and ended Cavendish’s hopes of a stage win.

Although Cavendish was cleared by the race commissaries, many fans blamed the Manxman for the collision on social media and one took matters further on the roadside yesterday.

Cavendish refused to answer questions about the matter, but his team spoke for him, with team manager Patrick Lefevere condemning the actions of the spectator involved.

“I regret this, I always felt that cycling fans were gentlemen, enthusiastic people,” he said. “Mark is sad, he’s not upset, just sad. I cannot blame anyone, there are 100,000 or 200,000 people on the road, and one person decided to do this.”

Sporting director Brian Holm said the team would take no further action, and pointed the finger at the media for the coverage of last night’s crash.

“I couldn’t see it was urine, but I thought people were quite negative,” Holm said on Cycling Weekly’s website.

“So congrats to the media for yesterday making him look like he caused the crash.”

Although Cavendish was cleared of blame, Veelers reacted angrily and on Tuesday evening called for Cavendish to be disqualified.

“Everybody said it was Cav, Cav, Cav,” Holm continued.

“The international commissaries said he made no mistake. It’s not going to be a long discussion. It’s part of the race. And Cav would never, ever crash somebody on purpose.”

Yesterday’s incident was first reported by Cavendish’s team-mate Jerome Pineau on Twitter, with the Frenchman saying it had brought shame on the Tour crowds. “Yesterday I was so proud to see the support at the race but today I am ashamed,” Pineau wrote.

“Ashamed when my friend @MarkCavendish tells me he has been whistled and even sprayed with urine on the course. It’s scandalous.”

Cavendish, 103 points behind Peter Sagan in the battle for the points leader’s green jersey, stayed silent when asked if he would comment on the incident, offering only a shake of the head before disappearing inside the team bus.

Holm fears the cyclist could have even more cause for concern if the current controversy does not die down. “I hope it’s not a general situation,” he said. “He’s going to have some long days in the Alps if people keep throwing p*** on him!”