Ireland's Dunbar, Mullen among crash victims at UAE Tour | Video

The slow motion video of the crash, below, shows how Ryan Mullen was bumped from his left, causing him to crash at speed (Photo: Luca Bettini-SCA-Cor Vos)

Irish riders Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) and Ryan Mullen (Bora-hansgrohe) were both among the crash victims on the opening stage at UAE Tour today.

Mullen was dropping back through the front of the bunch after completing his lead-out when a rider from Lotto-Dstny took him out from his left side. That knocked the Irishman off his bike, sending him crashing onto the tarmac before many other riders joined him.

It looked like a nasty one for Mullen, who was then bounced across the road as other riders hit him from behind. He was knocked sideways and instantly lost control, though it appears Dunbar may have come off worse.

He was behind the crash but was among those riders who could not knock off their speed enough to avoid those already falling in the road. Velo reports Dunbar looked in some discomfort as he crossed the line, with an apparent arm injury, and needed to be medically examined after the stage.

Advertisement

While there was no update from his team at the time of writing, he will hopefully be able to continue in the race, with a 12.1km TT in Al Hudayriyat Island scheduled for tomorrow. There follows on Wednesday the uphill finish of Jebel Jais, where Dunbar will look to make his mark.

Today was the second crash of his season as he was forced out of Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (2.Pro) after a crash on stage 2 last month, though his abandon there was attributed to the need to recover rather than any serious injury.

Related News

Today's crash appeared to be caused from the left side of the bunch in the sprint. A number of riders moved to the right, with Jarne Van de Paar (Lotto Dstny) appearing to get bumped into Mullen, taking him down.

Mullen, a rider who very rarely crashes, took to Instagram to share a slow-mo clip of the crash with the caption "always fun when this happens", clearly still able to joke about the incident in what is hopefully a good sign for his chances of continuing in the race.

We'll bring you more news on Dunbar when we have it, but hopefully he can continue in the race as he builds towards a return to the Giro d'Italia, where he was 7th overall last year.

Related News