🇦🇪 PHOTOS OF THE DAY: @uae_tour Sportsmanship, friendship and true team spirit 🤝👏 Harold Tejada and Michele Gazzoli! #UAETour #AstanaQazaqstanTeam 📷 @SprintCycling
"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
CyclingMonday, 19 February 2024 at 22:00
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!"
claps 4visitors 1026
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- The point is obvious: MVDP can beat Tadej on CX/Road and Tadej cannot. What is so hard to understand???averagecyclist22-12-2024
- Funny... one doper enabler backing the doper he enabled ! Who would have guessed.frieders322-12-2024
- Wouldn’t be here if I wasn’tMistermaumau22-12-2024
- So you're bored, got itvappaxbipmv22-12-2024
- Does everything need to have a point? If so, 99% of the internet should be wiped away. In relation to recent articles with quotes from other riders, my statement points to the ever more obvious reason why they are asked to comment on the effect of his return.Mistermaumau22-12-2024
- If anyone would be interested enough to launch an official survey as to who out of these three should shut up, I don’t know who’d win but I’m due Boonen would be way back in 3rd place.Mistermaumau22-12-2024
- And your point is what exactly?vappaxbipmv22-12-2024
- MVDP dominates this sport even more than Pogaçar dominates road racing. Also he can beat Tadej on the road quite regularly, the opposite is unlikely.Mistermaumau22-12-2024
- If you listen to team radios you'll hear each DS telling their riders to ride faster, fight their way to the front, and all occupy the same 8 places.Sweep22-12-2024
- You're talking about a sport where equipment and clothing is measured in grams.Sweep22-12-2024