Abu Dhabi Tour organisers blame automatic brake sensor for Cavendish crash
RCS Sport promise to deactivate system an🐭d visit ♛Manxman





Mark Renshaw wasn't close enough to see the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:neutralised zone crash that ended his 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Dimension Data teammate 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Mark Cavendish's 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Abu Dhabi Tour before it had even begun, but the cause of the crash quickly travelled by inductio♛n through the peloton and 🐷proved to be accurate.
Cavendish was one of fiv🥀e to crash when the peloton slowed behind the leꦏad car on stage 1 of the Abu Dhabi Tour, and although he remounted and re-joined the peloton, he was forced to abandon with a suspected concussion and whiplash.
"I didn't see it happen, but there was word going around that a lot of the cars have the autom♉📖atic braking system, and if they don't disengage that, then as soon as a bike rider comes close, it brakes," Renshaw told reporters who had congregated by the Dimension Data team cars after stage 1 of the Abu Dhabi Tour.
That theory was confirmed shortly afterwa�🐭�rds by RCS Sport race director Stefano Allocchio, who was a passenger in the Mercedes that led the bunch through the neutralised zone. When the riders behind the car moved close enough to trigger the sensor, the car's brakes were automatically applied.
While the riders on either side of the slowing lead car simply rode past it, those directly behind it were forc♐ed to suddenly brake, and Cavendish was unable to avoid touching the rear wheel of Leonardo Basso (Team Sky) and fell heavily.
🦋"The car braked by itself," Allocchio explained. "Unfortunately, these are things that happen. This evening, we'll have a technician deactivate it on the all the cars🐼 because we don't want to risk it happening again."
That will be of scant consolation to Cavendish at this juncture, though Dimension Data directeur sportif Roger Hammond was more concerned with the well beingไ of his rider than attributing blame for the incident.
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"The most important thing was to get him picked up off the road and ass💟ess the situation," Hammond told reporters at the finish. "My discussion with Mark was with the doctors - where he was injured, where he was hurt and what we were going to do about it. How it happened didn't really interest us at the time. The milk's already spilt."
A delegation from the race organisation was planning to visit Cavendish on Wednesday evening, either i꧂n▨ hospital or at the hotel, to express their regret at the Abu Dhabi Tour ambassador being forced out of the race in such circumstances.
Concussion and whiplash
The initial report from the Dimension Data team suggested that Cavendish had landed on the same shoulder he broke whe🌠n he crashed out of the 2017 Tour de France, but it later emerged that he had abandoned the race due to a concussion and whiplash.
"I just spoke to him for a second when he came back to the bunch and I asked, 'Are you ok?' and he s🦩aid 'No, I've got a pretty sore head,' and that's when he went straight back to the car," Renshaw said. "I think he went back because of his head and neck, because ﷺhis neck kind of fell on somebody's back wheel."
Once Cavendish dropped back to consult with H💎ammond and the medical staff, it was quic𒊎kly apparent that it would have been unwise in the extreme to continue in the race with such injuries.
"The most important thing is t🐬hat Cavendish got the care that he👍 needed, so we were at the side of the road trying to work out doctors and cars, and get him to hospital as quickly as possible to get checked up for the next races," Hammond said.
"They're always the worst crashes, those slow ones. You're not expecting them anཧ▨d you hit the ground pretty hard, whereas in high-speed crashes you tend to slide, as every bike rider knows."
While Hammond was addressing reporters beyond the finish line in Madinat Zayed, Dimension Data issued a press release d🎃etailing Cavendish's injuries, with team doctor Adrian Rotunno confirming that the rider had not sustained a serious neck injury in the crash. "He currently has some concussive symptoms and neck pain, but is otherwise stable," Rotunno said. "We will monitor Mark's condition closely goin🍰g forward."
It is still unclear whether Cavendish's participation in Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Rꦑemo will be affected by the injuries he sustained in Abu Dhabi. He began his campaign with a stage win at the Dubai Tour and raced last ♒week's Tour of Oman as part of an early-season block of racing in the Middle East.

Barry Ryan was Head of Features at Cyclingnews. He has covered professional cycling since 2010, reporting from the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentin🦩a to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of , published by Gill Books.