Cycling Weekly understands that Mark Cavendish  was taken to hospital following the opening stage of this year’s Friends Life Tour of Britain after a mid-race crash.

Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) described his left leg as being “f****d” after the circuit race on Merseyside, but impressively still managed to finish third on the stage.

Along with team-mate Mark Renshaw, he was attempting to rejoin the peloton after an early comfort break.

However, with his vision blocked by the glare of the sun, Cavendish ended up hitting the Rapha Condor-JLT team car.

“I whacked a car. I hit it.  My bike went smack. I really hurt my leg. I don’t know what’s wrong with it,” Cavendish told journalists.

Meanwhile, Rapha team manager John Herety saw the incident in full.

“I saw it in slow motion,” said Herety. “We had stopped to service Chris Opie, who needed a wheel change.

“As the [Cavendish] group approached us, the IAM team car [behind in the convoy] did not go around us. It slowed quickly, maybe because there were other riders on the right-hand side of the car.

“Cav was on his bumper, and had nowhere to go. He hit our left wing mirror and went into our mechanic as he crashed.”

Herety added that Cavendish had telephoned him after the stage to apologise.

The Manxman has only recently returned from the shoulder injury he sustained on the opening day of the Tour de France in Harrogate.