Crash ends Tour de France for Bradley Wiggins

THE Tour de France is over for Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins after he was injured in a pile-up of up to 80 riders. 

Bradley Wiggins

THE Tour de France is over for Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins.

Wiggins was the biggest casualty in a massive pile-up that involved up to 80 riders about 40km from the finish.

The British road champion, who was lying sixth just 10 seconds behind the yellow jersey holder Thor Hushovd of Garmin Cervelo and nine behind Cadel Evans (BMC) who missed the carnage, was taken by ambulance to hospital with a broken left collarbone.

Wiggins' loss left the Sky train and management totally gutted.

The big pile-up also cost Welshman Geraint Thomas the white jersey as best young rider.

"Bradley came to the Tour in great shape, he had put so much work into this race," team principal, Dave Brailsford said. "It's been a devastating day for the team. It's a real shame we never got to see him go into the mountains because he was into the best shape of his life."

Wiggins, whose late father, Gary, from East Gippsland in Victoria rode as a professional based in Belgium in the 1970s and 80s, had come into the race having beaten Evans at the Dauphine Libere last month.

Brailsford said riders towards the end of the main chasing bunch had crunched Wiggins from behind as riders hit the asphalt.

As other riders gingerly picked themselves up and carried on, race medical staff rushed Wiggins away to hospital by ambulance.

The loss of the Brit upset eventual stage winner, Mark Cavendish of HTC-Highroad, who went on to claim the win, his second in three days and 17th Tour career win in France.

Speaking at the end of the stage when told of the news of Wiggins' abandonment, Cavendish said: “I'm gutted for him, really gutted for him. We could have brought home the green and the yellow jersey. I've never seen him in such good form.”

Cavendish couldn't contain his praise for his HTC-Highroad team mates that included the Australian pair of Matt Goss and key lead out man Mark Renshaw, from Bathurst.

"This is the one I wanted to win, this one and in Paris. The TV camera shots speak for themselves. I'm so proud of them today, they were simply phenomenal,” he said.

"We have so much rspect for this race, that's why we bring the strongest team and that's why I'm so proud of what they do for me."

Cavendish's second stage victory moved him up to third in the race for the green jersey behind the Spaniard Jose Rojas and the Belgium Philippe Gilbert.

Garmin Cervelo's Tyler Farrar, a stage winner earlier in the week, didn't contest the final sprint after he too crashed in the same accident that took out Wiggins.

Earlier, Belgium champion Tom Boonen (Quick Step) also abandoned the race, still feeling the affects of an earlier fall.

"I was a danger to the other riders. I think I suffered a concussion. I've got a big headache," said Boonen.

"Every kilometre (I rode) was one too many. This was not a grazed elbow, this is my head. I went down in the crash head first, without putting my hands out."

Quick Step media manager Alessandro Tegner told The Weekend Australian Boonen would stay in hospital today as a precaution for more tests before heading home to Monaco.