MARK CAVENDISH was forced to bite his tongue after becoming a victim of a crash-strewn final three kilometres on the first road stage of the 2010 Tour de France in Brussels yesterday.

Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) and Oscar Freire (Rabobank) went wide on a right-hand bend with 3,000m to go of the 223.5km first stage from Rotterdam to the Belgian capital, before a second – and this time more major – crash one kilometre later wiped out Tyler Farrar’s hopes of an American success on Independence Day.

Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese) was the major benefactor, winning the sprint for the line with the 20 or so riders to emerge unscathed from the second collision as a third crash happened behind him.

Cavendish’s HTC-Columbia lead-out man Mark Renshaw was second and third went to Thor Hushovd (Cervelo Test Team), the winner of the points classification in 2009.

Petacchi takes the green jersey from Briton David Millar (Team Garmin-Transitions), whose progress earlier in the day was temporarily halted after a dog ran into the peloton in one of numerous early incidents along the North Sea coast.

Cavendish has endured a difficult 11 months on and off the bike since winning his sixth stage of the 2009 Tour on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

The 25-year-old Manxman was involved in a crash at the Tour de Suisse last month and his latest setback yesterday ended with him being taunted by fans wearing Team Sky replica jerseys.

Six-time maillot vert winner Erik Zabel, who is Cavendish’s mentor at HTC-Columbia, did not see the crash, but backs his protege to bounce back, despite chants of ’Cav, go home – you suck’ emanating from the crowd.

The German said: “It was strong from him that he stayed so calm.

“It annoys you a lot if you come off the finish line and the fans talk to you like this.”