Dimension Data rider crashed on today’s opening team time trial stage at Tirreno-Adriatico which took place in O Lido Camaiore. Cavendish’s bad luck seems to continue with today’s nasty accident which left the rider with several facial injuries.
Fortunately, Cavendish was able to cross the finish line even though the incident seemed to have left him in a bad physical shape. Apparently, Cavendish hit the deck a few minutes before the finish line.
UPDATE: @MarkCavendish has been ruled out of @TirrenAdriatico after fracturing a rib in a heavy crash today and finishing outside of the time limit.
?: @modcyclingphoto pic.twitter.com/PdOjIhRStu
— Team Dimension Data (@TeamDiData) March 7, 2018
“It was very likely a pothole that hit his back wheel. There are a lot of holes in the riding line, he probably hit one of those and at 60kph, it never ends really well. On the TT bike, you’re down low with the load on the front, so if you go down, you go on your head so of course that’s not too cool,” Dimension Data director Rolf Aldag said soon after the ending of the opening stage.
“He wasn’t last but he was near the end of the line. The other riders got around. It went so quick. We have it on camera so we will see it and analyze it and see what happened. It does not really matter right now. The fact is that he went down really, really hard and it’s up to the doctors to see what that caused and how we go from here.”
Tirreno-Adriatico is known to be a favorite event for Cavendish who uses this spring race to better prepare for Milan-San Remo. Today’s race marked the first one for the Dimension Data rider after recovering from a sudden concussion he took in the neutral zone of the Abu Dhabi Tour’s first stage a few weeks back.
Tirreno-Adriatico Opening Stage 1 results
BMC – 22mins 19secs
Mitchelton-Scott – +4secs
Team Sky
Quick-Step Floors
Team Sunweb
Katusha-Alpecin
Bora-Hansgrohe
Trek-Segafredo
UAE Team Emirates
EF Education First-Drapac
