Tour de France: Mark Cavendish angry at 'deliberate crash' claims

Mark Cavendish will have an operation on Wednesday after suffering extensive ligament damage to his shoulder in Saturday's stage one crash

Mark Cavendish is considering legal action after a rival rider accused him of "crashing on purpose" at the climax of stage one of the Tour de France.

Norwegian rider Alexander Kristoff claimed the fall, which ended the Isle of Man rider's Tour, looked deliberate.

Cavendish, set to miss the Commonwealth Games after dislocating his shoulder in the crash, is "shocked and angry" at the comments, said agent Simon Bayliff.

"He has has no idea where Kristoff is coming from," added Bayliff.

"I would normally say it's best just to let some things go, but this is libellous and we are considering legal action."

Cavendish admitted he was to blame for the collision with Simon Gerrans during the sprint in Harrogate, and apologised to the Australian Orica-GreenEdge rider.

Tour officials made no ruling on the incident, and Gerrans accepted the apology.

But Team Katusha's Kristoff said the Manxman had "lost his head a little bit", adding: "I hope he calms down a little bit in the future."

Kristoff, March's Milan-San Remo winner who finished seventh in the first stage, told cyclingnews.com: "It's not the first time he's done this. At 60 kilometres an hour it's really dangerous and you can injure people, so it's not nice of him.

"In an uphill sprint you lose a bit of control sometimes."

Earlier on Monday, Cavendish was told he must have surgery on his injured right shoulder and will be out of action for up to six weeks. The Commonwealth Games start in Glasgow on 23 July.

Cavendish goes to ground during the sprint finish

Cavendish lies injured as an Omega Pharma - Quick-Step team-mate looks over him

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry applaud Cavendish as he rides over the finish line