Bradley Wiggins's Tour de France came to a brutal end as the Briton abandoned the race after breaking his collarbone in a major crash about 40 kilometers from the end of stage 7 earlier this afternoon.

The Team Sky captain, fourth overall in 2009, looked in serious pain as he held his left arm before leaving the scene of the crash in an ambulance. A team spokesman confirmed he had suffered a fractured left collarbone.

At the crash site it looked as if Wiggins had already been taped up in the shoulder area under his jersey before the crash, so he may have been more susceptible to a fracture than normally.

Wiggins's crash came just one day after Team Sky Procycling snatched their first Tour de France stage victory when Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen won the sixth stage.

The British champion came to the race in great form, having won the prestigious Criterium du Dauphine, a pre-Tour de France warm-up event last month.

Wiggins, a three-times Olympic pursuit champion, came to prominence on the road in 2009 when he finished a surprising fourth overall in the Tour.

Last year, he ended a disappointing 24th overall but said that he had prepared much better for this year's race.