Yellow jersey contender Bradley Wiggins crashed out of the Tour de France after being caught up in a crash on the race's seventh stage Friday, suffering a broken collar bone in the process. Wiggins finished fourth overall in 2009 and, after his recent victory in the Criterium du Dauphine, the Englishman was considered a strong challenger here. British sprint king Mark Cavendish took his victory tally on the Tour to 17 when he powered to victory in the seventh stage ahead of Italian veteran Alessandro Petacchi. Norway's Thor Hushovd, seventh on the stage, retained the leader's yellow jersey after the 218km ride over mainly flat terrain from Le Mans to Chateauroux. Andre Greipel, a former teammate of Cavendish's and now one of his biggest rivals, was third for Omega-Pharma. Cavendish, who claimed his first victory of the 98th edition Wednesday, opened his Tour de France account at Chateauroux in 2008 when he beat Spanish ace Oscar Freire and German legend Erik Zabel to the line. In recent years Zabel has been a consultant to Cavendish, and his HTC-Highroad team put on sprint train master class to show their rivals how it's done on the flat home straights.
