The 38-year-old Cavendish was racing his final Tour de France in an effort to break the all time record of 34 stage wins he shares with Eddy Merckx.
The Astana rider was ashen-faced as doctors closed the ambulance door on his bid to set the new record which escaped him by a whisker on stage seven at Bordeaux on Friday.
Headed for victory on the banks of the Garonne river a chain slip saw Jasper Philipsen beat him to the line and deprive him of a landmark stage win.
Cavendish burst on to the Tour de France map in 2008 with his first four wins when he was just 23-years-old.
His iconic celebrations were drenched in bravado and made such good television he attracted a new generation of fans to the sport.
A student of the fine art of the sprint lead out and a bullish competitor the Isle of man native matched Merckx on 34 wins in 2021.
He missed the cut in 2022 but changed teams for 2023 where he appeared capable of clinching the all important stage for which he strived so hard.
Bullish competitor
A student of the fine art of the sprint lead out and a bullish competitor the Isle of Man native matched Merckx on 34 wins in 2021.
He missed the cut in 2022 but changed teams for 2023 where he appeared capable of clinching the all important stage for which he strived so hard.
Although Cavendish originally said this would be his final Tour de France he left the door open to another year on the eve of this tour.
"I'm still racing, still loving it, and I'll keep doing it until I stop," he said.
"The biggest thing I can say is never give up, do what you want and enjoy it, but commit to it. It's a good rule to live by."
Cavendish appeared to be about to bag a record-breaking 35th win on Friday at Bordeaux where he hit almost 75kph before a chain slip allowed Jasper Philipsen to burst back past him.
He was also in the mix on the two other stages that ended in mass bunch sprints.
The Manx Missile reached 73kph at one point on the first bunch sprint on stage three in Bayonne, where he came sixth. No rider had gone faster on the Tour until he himself smashed that on Friday.
At the Nogaro motorbike racetrack on stage four he came fifth, and said he had been blocked by a fall as the 25-year-old Philipsen won a second straight stage.
A Netflix television crew for a series to be aired in August has been following Cavendish's every move.
