In retaliation for crashing Tom Veelers in yesterday’s sprint finish, a fan doused Mark Cavendish with urine during Wednesday’s time trial. 鈥淧robably some spectators were not very pleased with what happened yesterday and they yelled to him and then one other idiot threw urine at him,鈥 Omega Pharma team CEO Patrick Lefevere told the .
In yesterday’s sprint finish into Saint-Malo, Cavendish bumped shoulders with Veelers, sending him to the asphalt at high speed. While Veelers blamed Cavendish for the crash, race jury officials failed to fine the British champion.
Later in the day, Cavendish issued a non-apology apology on Twitter , “Can all sprint experts on twitter go & try flicking their bike right at 65kph without leaning your body left to balance & come back to me.”
While Cavendish’s day stole the headlines, Tony Martin, the defending individual world time trial champion, , only 12 seconds down. Froome’s closest competitors for the overall, Alejandro Valverde and Bauke Mollema, lost more than two minutes each on the stage. Given the time gaps, Froome’s competitors face an uphill battle in stripping the Sky rider of the yellow jersey.聽