2016 Tour de France: Alberto Contador hurts shoulder in crash; Mark Cavendish takes first stage

ALBERTO Contador’s Tour de France chances suffered an early blow when he crashed on the first stage as Mark Cavendish showed his sprinting class.

Alberto Contador is determined to soldier on despite a heavy fall.

ALBERTO Contador’s Tour de France chances suffered an early blow when the Spaniard crashed with about 80 km left in the 188km first stage from Mont St Michel to near one of the D-Day beaches.

British rider Mark Cavendish took the first stage after outsprinting Marcel Kittel and world champion Peter Sagan.

But it was Contador, the twice winner of the Tour, who stole the headlines after falling heavily on a bend.

He quickly got back on his bike with bruises to his right shoulder and was helped by several team mates to rejoin the peloton before changing his right shoe and having his right shoulder taped by a race doctor.

“It’s not the best way to start. I’m bruised all down along my right side from my ankle up but at least I don’t have to go home,” Contador said.

“I came into the corner, there was a traffic island and my front wheel hit it and then I fell back on the curb.”

Alberto Contador is determined to soldier on despite a heavy fall.

Contador, who has not won the Tour since 2009 but has had a strong build-up to the event as he looks to beat pre-race favourites Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana, has crashed several times on the Tour in recent years.

He now has to deal with the pain over the next few stages before tackling the first mountain stage, a long trek in the Massif Central.

Meanwhile, Cavendish completed cycling’s prestigious set of distinctive jerseys when he grabbed the overall leader’s yellow jersey.

“I can’t believe it. Regardless of who was there, the Tour de France is the Tour de France,” Cavendish said.

“To win a stage is incredible. I’m very emotional for it. It’s going to be a special day tomorrow to ride a stage in yellow. There was no better place to achieve this than Utah Beach where soldiers died for us.”

Cavendish wore the world champion’s rainbow jersey after winning the road race in 2011, the pink jersey for the Giro d’Italia leader (in 2009, 2011 and 2013) as well as the red jersey for the Vuelta leader (2010).

He also secured the green jersey for the points classification on the Tour de France (2011).

Originally published as 2016 Tour de France: Alberto Contador hurts shoulder in crash; Mark Cavendish takes first stage