Mark Cavendish's bid to break the all-time record for Tour de France stage wins took a heavy blow in the frantic run-in to the finish of stage 4 on the Circuit de Nogaro speedway as Astana-Qazaqstan teammate Luis Léon Sánchez crashed in the final bend and was transported to a local hospital with a suspected collarbone fracture.
The crash-marred finale also saw Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-QuickStep) lose his chance of victory in the sprint when he came down in the final kilometre, though the European champion was able to remount and complete the stage.
Jakobsen rolled to the finish with the right shoulder of his jersey torn nearly off and his skin heavily abraded but seemed to be relatively intact despite crashing at 60kph.
Although Sánchez was classified in last place on the stage, it immediately seemed unlikely that he would be able to continue in the Tour, and later in the evening his Astana-Qazaqstan team confirmed that he had broken his collarbone and would return home to Spain for an operation. Cavendish finished in fifth place on the stage, falling short of taking his 35th career stage win at the Tour de France.
Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny) also lost a key teammate when Jacopo Guarnieri crashed in the same incident as Jakobsen. The team said in a statement that the Italian would undergo surgery in Herentals this week and that "apart from a fractured collarbone, Jacopo has also incurred three minor rib fractures and lots of abrasions."
Despite losing a key element of his lead-out in Nogaro, Ewan finished a close second on the stage behind winner Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
After stage 3's sinuous finish that led to a long deliberation by the race jury to decide whether to relegate Philipsen for deviating from his line, the final metres of stage 4 were wide and straight but that didn't stop riders from crashing. Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X), after leading out teammate Alexander Kristoff, veered into Axel Zingle (Cofidis) and, as the barriers were bumped out slightly, both riders came down.
Philipsen heard the commotion behind him but cruised to his second Tour de France stage of 2023 win after a stellar lead-out from teammate Mathieu van der Poel.
"It's a nice finish but I thought it would be a bit more safe with wide roads, but the turns were also tricky, especially going full gas in the turns. Luckily the tyres were good enough and I didn’t slip away. It was a nice finish, and I just hoped everyone who crashed is OK," he said.
