Mark Cavendish won a crash-marred seventh stage of the Tour de France yesterday, capturing his 17th career stage win in the same town where he won his first, as world champion Thor Hushovd retained the yellow jersey.

A pileup towards the end of the 218-kilometre race south across the Loire River valley under sunny skies cost British champion Bradley Wiggins his hopes of a final podium place in Paris, as Sky’s leader crashed out of the race with what the team said later was a broken collarbone.

HTC-Highroad rider Cavendish sprinted out of the speeding pack in the last few hundred meters, beating fellow sprint specialists Alessandro Petacchi and Andre Greipel to the finish.

Winning the sprint in Chateauroux, where Cavendish notched his first Tour de France win in 2008, “was a very special stage for me,” Cavendish said. “Winning again here today is very sentimental for me.”

Britain’s Team Sky suffered a cruel reversal of fortune, losing their leader and main contender. Wiggins went down along with a few dozen other riders, 38 kilometers from the finish. Only 24 hours earlier Wiggins and his Sky teammates were celebrating Norwegian Boasson Hagen’s stage victory, the team’s first ever.