Some of the riders were in a bad way after this high speed nervous moment for half of the Aqua Blue Sport team.
Riding the opening stage of their first ever stage race, Aqua Blue Sport has witnessed a day of drama at the Dubai Tour.
The Irish ProContinental team managed to get a man in the main breakaway of the day and also take a top 10 finish when that escape was reeled in.
But before British national champion Adam Blythe was up front trying to get into the mix in the sprint and eventually placing 10th, the team endured a very nervous moment.
Blythe, Matt Brammeier and their team mates narrowly avoided a serious crash in the peloton with just over 20km remaining.
A number of the men in blue and gold got caught right behind the smash, which appeared to leave some of the fallers in a very bad way after hitting a steel road side on a small traffic island.
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The stage was won by Marcel Kittel (QuickStep) from Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNl-Jumbo) and Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) in a big bunch sprint.
After having had Conor Dunne in the breakaway at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Australia last week where he also took the climbers’ award, the team placed another man in the escape today; Daniel Pearson.
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He pulled clear with Nicola Boem (Bardiani), Silvan Dillier (BMC), Thomas Stewart (One Pro Cycling) and Matteo Bono (UAE Abu Dhabi). They had a lead of almost five minutes just after the first hour of racing though they would be recaptured with 10km remaining.
The crash the Aqua Blue Sport riders managed to avoid was one of two bad ones in the closing 20km of the 181km pan flat stage that started and finished in Dubai.
Brammeier and the rest of the team finished in the bunch today on the same time as winner and race leader Kittel.
The only Irish rider in the race is Novo Nordisk's Stephen Clancy who also finished in the bunch today.
The 2.HC event continues until Saturday.
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