"There were so many bodies around that it was like, 'oh, something is going to happen here'" - Mark Cavendish details first-hand account of UAE Tour crash

In the bunch sprint on the first stage of the 2024 UAE Tour, there was a big crash in the finale that saw a number of riders caught up.

One man who saw the incident right up and close was Astana Qazaqstan Team's Mark Cavendish. Although the legendary sprinter didn't hit the deck himself, his teammate Harold Tejada did. "I've just seen him, he's a bit cut up, bless him. It wasn't nice," said Cavendish to GCN post-stage. "Coming into the last kilometre, there were so many bodies around that it was like, 'oh, something is going to happen here.' You know it, but you don't know when and you don't know where."

"I was with Michael Morkov, he got me into the last kilometre and then it was actually Harold coming up then, dead calm — 'hey Mark, come on!' That's why he was involved," Cavendish continues. "He just got taken out as one rider cut across the road, and he took another, I was just to the left of it, I was quite lucky."

Despite eventually finishing the stage in 22nd as Tim Merlier took the win, 'The Manx Missile' remains optimistic. "We've got some young guys who are learning out here. We didn't quite do what we wanted. It was over-eager, I guess, at some points, instead of staying patient," he says. "With a headwind finish, you can always hide and come from behind, but we'll talk about it later."

"You'd rather get your own team right and not have to worry about anything else, that's the ideal thing always. But I'd be giving away secrets if I said who were the best people to follow!" Cavendish concludes. "There can be one guy who wins out of 200 bike riders, it's the same every time. There's a lot of guys who will try again and with Merlier, it's not like he's allergic to winning!"