Frustration for Mark Cavendish in Dubai

The incident happened coming out of a tunnel with just over a kilometre to go, derailing several leadout trains including those of Cavendish's Dimension Data squad.

He tried to move back up in the closing metres but was too far back as Team Sky's Elia Viviani took victory.

"It was a little bit sketchy, it always is this stage. There were too many risks being taken, too many risks," he told Cyclingnews and Het Nieuwsblad.

"We were okay in the tunnel and Mark (Renshaw) did a good job. Then a rider from SkyDive Dubai, I don't know his name, he just turned right and 'Bam!' I was on my brakes, on the uphill…I knew I was too far behind after that but then I saw that Guardini had a lead out man.

"I decided to stay behind them thinking they'd accelerate but they didn't. I was just too far back."