The opening stage of the UAE Tour saw a huge crash in the final kilometre, with several riders hitting the deck, some cannoning into the barriers, and their bikes flipping into the air.
Ryan Mullen (Bora-Hansgrohe) appeared to be the first rider to go down after completing his lead-out when riders behind him were frantically fighting to get in position for the sprint, including Lotto Dstny’s sprinter Jarne Van de Paar.
Van de Paar was squeezed by riders on his outside and collided with the Irishman as he was dropping back through the peloton. Mullen’s arm was knocked and caused him to crash, taking down one of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale’s riders by accident and sending a domino effect across the road, which caused a further 15 or so riders to crash.
Mullen later sarcastically wrote, “Always fun when this happens” on his Instagram story after the stage.
Worst affected was Cofidis’ Milan Frentin, who was launched into the barriers shoulder-first as Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan) was taken down by the ripple effect into the young Belgian’s path. Tejada was pictured after the stage with a heavily ripped jersey and different points of road race across his back and elbow.
The Colombian did finish the stage, but only while sitting on the top tube of teammate Michele Gazzoli’s bike as he held onto his own with his left hand.
“There was a lot of tension in the last kilometres in the main group. Inside the last kilometre, I was in front, and a rider from Bora [Mullen] fell down just in front of me, and I crashed as well,” said a more upbeat Tejada on Astana’s social media.
“The main thing is I have nothing broken, and I hope to recover to be able to ride for the GC.”
Cofidis are yet to provide an update on Frentin, but he was seen being put onto a stretcher after the crash and visibly in pain. The French team posted on social media that they would share news as soon as possible on their crashed rider’s conditions.
On the other side of the road, both Hungarian national champion Atilla Valter (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers) seemed worst affected as they flipped over their handlebars and onto their backs.
Thankfully, subsequent updates from the teams suggest the pair weren’t as badly injured as they could have been in such a high-speed incident.
“Attila got involved and is somewhat battered at the moment. At first glance, the damage doesn’t seem to be too bad,” said Visma-Lease a Bike coach Maarten Wynants, on the…
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