Cavendish felled in late crash as Greipel wins Vattenfall Cyclassics

Mark Cavendish returns to the track this weekend in an attempt to gain some more Olympic qualification points having finished two minutes down on winner Andre Greipel in Sunday's Vattenfall Cyclassics.

The Etixx-Quick-Step rider finished down in 66th place after a late crash scuppered his chances of winning, leaving teammate Tom Boonen to contest the finish, coming in fourth.

German Greipel continued his purple patch of form to win his first WorldTour one-day race, beating Katusha's Alexander Kristoff and Trek Factory Racing's Giacomo Nizzolo to the line in Hamburg.

"This is the first time I won a one-day WorldTour race, so this is really special," he said. "Certainly because it’s in my home country. I won’t compare it to winning a Tour stage for example, I’m just very proud I could win this race.”

Etixx gave themselves plenty of options in the race, with Cavendish, Boonen, Julian Alaphilippe and Tony Martin in their impressive lineup.

Kristoff added another podium finish to his impressive season, although the Norwegian has just one win since the end of June, having won 19 times before the Tour de France.