Mark Cavendish is livid with Katusha fastman Alexander Kristoff’s claims that Cavendish crashed on purpose during the first stage of the Tour de France. 

The Manxman’s agent Simon Bayliff said Cavendish is “shocked and angry” at the comments, which were made the day after Cavendish crashed out of the race.

"He 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 libelous and we are considering legal action."

Cavendish openly took responsibility for the crash and offered an apology to Simon Gerrans, the Australian who was taken down in the crash with Cavendish, and the apology was accepted, with Tour officials taking no action against Cavendish.

Kristoff told Cyclingnews that Cavendish “lost his head a little bit” and that he “needs to calm down in the future.”

Kristoff, who is no slouch in a sprint as he showed by outsprinting Cavendish and others to win a wet Milan-Sanremo this year, as well as the bunch sprint for bronze in the 2012 Olympic Games Road Race, was seventh on stage one and believed the crash slowed him down. He also said: 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."

But Kristoff also praised the Manxman as a ‘fantastic sprinter”.

Cavendish is due to have surgery and will be out for six weeks, meaning he misses the Commonwealth Games.