Most days in the Tour de France, the focus of the media is on the front of the race. That wasn't the case on Saturday when Mark Cavendish, who is hoping to break the all-time record for Tour de France stage wins this year, went out the back of the peloton on the first climb, more than 160 kilometres from the finish.

Cavendish could be seen vomiting while riding through his sufferfest, but was surrounded by teammates as he fought to make it to Rimini inside the time limit. He finally came through well within the 48-minute time cut.

He wasn't sick or having heat exhaustion, he was just suffering from the parcours, according to his team manager

Alexandre Vinokourov.