Mark Cavendish praised the “courage” of the Tour de France commissaires after they disqualified world champion Peter Sagan for causing the crash that put the Manxman out of the race.

Cavendish was knocked into the barriers by Sagan just 120 metres from the finish of stage four in Vittel on Tuesday, but the race jury’s decision to send Sagan home sparked a furious debate.

“If I’m honest it takes a lot of courage, a lot of balls to eliminate the world champion from the Tour de France, and I commend the jury on taking a decision that wasn’t based on influences from social media or outside,” Cavendish said after attending the start of stage five to bid farewell to his Dimension Data team-mates.

Cavendish suffered a broken shoulder blade in the crash as well as injuries to his right hand, but he was clear his season is not over as he can resume indoor training immediately.

The 32-year-old had won a three-month battle with the Epstein-Barr virus to start the Tour, but said his recovery from this latest setback should be more straightforward.

“At least it doesn’t require surgery which is good,” the Team Dimension Data sprinter told ITV4.

“To be honest, at least I know I can kind of train on it, which is better than if I was ill again.

“I am on the turbo trainer for the next few weeks.”

It remains to be seen just how soon Cavendish could return, but there are plenty of races he might want to target, not least the Tour of Britain which will have a sprint-heavy route this September.

For now, Cavendish’s hopes of adding to his 30 career Tour stage wins - and closing in on Eddy Merckx’s all-time record of 34 - are over for another year.