Movistar rider Alex Dowsett set an unenviable personal record by crashing twice in one day on stage one of the Abu Dhabi Tour on Thursday.
Dowsett was among those riders bought down in a crash with just one kilometre to go, in which Sky rider Owain Doull sustained cuts to his shoe and foot, that he blamed on Marcel Kittel’s disc breaks.
However, he also crashed on the long, straight wide road that comprised most of the stage.
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“Two in a day is a record it’s not something I want to do again either,” he said as he nursed abrasions and bruising to his right arm, shoulder and knee.
The first crash Dowsett said was his “own fault” after hitting a cat's eye in the middle of the road. “If it’s all your fault then you don’t want to take anyone down with you,” he said.
Dowsett was one of a handful of riders that crashed on a relatively featureless stage held mostly on two lane highways. Juraj Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Pello Bilbao Lopez (Astana) also came down.
“Today was so boring I’ve crashed so I’m going to say it was a s**t course. We had two corners in the first 180km and five in the last five km, it’s just…” Dowsett said, shrugging his shoulders.
“People switch off massively it’s so dull out there with a long straight road you’re not really doing anything, it’s a bit uncomfortable but it’s not that hard by any stretch of the imagination and then its hot as well, it's up to 36 degrees out there it tires you out a bit.”
