Cavendish lives to fight another day

For a moment it appeared Mark Cavendish’s Tour de France and Olympic hopes might be over on stage four to Rouen today, but the world champion is set to live to fight another day.

The first week of the Tour is often punctuated by crashes and the latest came in the final three kilometres of the 214.5-kilometre route from Abbeville, meaning there was no impact on the general classification standings, with Fabian Cancellara retaining the yellow jersey.