• Sprinter reported to be 'sad rather than angry' over incident • 'It was really disappointing,' says race leader Chris Froome

Mark Cavendish's difficult Tour de France took an unsavoury turn on Wednesday when a spectator threw urine over the Manx sprinter during the Tour de France's time-trial stage from Avranches to Mont Saint-Michel. The incident overshadowed a dominant performance by his fellow Briton Chris Froome, who finished second on the stage and now has a massive 3min 25sec advantage overall on the Spaniard Alejandro Valverde.

The act was roundly condemned by Froome and the stage winner, Cavendish's Omega Pharma-Quickstep team-mate, Tony Martin. "It was really disappointing," Froome said. "One of the best things about our sport is that the spectators can get close to the top riders in the world and feel the excitement and the colour.

"It's disappointing that one individual should ruin it for Mark. He's one of the great personalities of the sport – some people love him, some hate him – but to do something disrespectful like that is sad. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth."

The stage winner, Martin, said the incident was "nothing to do with sport. I couldn't believe it. I really hope it's just an individual thing from one or two people".

The Cavendish episode came less than 24 hours after his close encounter with the Dutchman Tom Veelers on the Saint-Malo finish straight, and the assumption had to be that there was a link. "He was whistled and catcalled on the course, and a spectator threw urine on him," said Cavendish's team manager Patrick Lefevere.

"I didn't see it happen, but you had only to smell his jersey. Mark is sad, you might have expected him to be angry, but he's just sad. I cannot blame anyone. There are 100,000 or 200,000 people on the road, and one person decided to do this."

OPQS's sporting director Brian Holm said the team would take no further action, and pointed the finger at the media for the coverage of Tuesday's crash. "I couldn't see it was urine but I thought people were quite negative," he said. "So congrats to the media for yesterday making him look like he caused the crash."

Cavendish did not comment on the incident after finishing the time trial, but his French team-mate Jérôme Pineau said on Twitter: "It's shameful that my friend Mark Cavendish has told me he was whistled and had urine thrown on him during the race. It's a scandal."

Lefevere said he assumed the incident was connected to Tuesday's crash in the finish sprint at Saint-Malo, where Cavendish clashed shoulders with Veelers, who fell, although the race referees ruled that Veelers was to blame.

Cycling is unique among major sports in the close contact with fans, but in time trials cyclists are particularly vulnerable as they race alone, with only a single police motorbike for protection ahead of them. The previously defined starting order means that fans know precisely who is coming and when. "There is no protection for the riders, it's not like a football stadium where there is a certain distance," said Lefevere.

This is not the first time that fans have attacked a cyclist on a Tour stage. The "cannibal" Eddy Merckx was punched in the kidneys by a fan not far from the top of the Puy de Dôme climb in the 1975 race, and Lefevere compared the assault on Cavendish to this episode. "Mark has a great record, he has stature, new riders are coming in and the public wants change. I hope it is a unique case and it doesn't happen again."

Unfortunately, it is not unique. Lance Armstrong had to be assigned police bodyguards for the time trial up l'Alpe d'Huez in 2004 after death threats were received, while on various occasions riders have had wine thrown at them, and sides of raw meat waved in their faces. The race regularly falls foul of political demonstrations, while last year's race, famously, was disrupted after tacks were thrown on the road before the bunch came past on a Pyrenean stage.