"It all happened in the blink of an eye," Quick-Step Alfa Vinyl reported about the race in Ronde van Limburg on Monday after sprinter Mark Cavendish went down in a late-race crash.

Cavendish was in a prime position to take a sprint win in the 202.6-km race between Hasselt and Tongeren.

However, despite steering perfectly with teammate and lead-out man Michael Mørkøv, he crashed with 3 km to go and was eliminated from the race for the win along with several other riders. Gerben Theisen (Intermarke Wanty-Gobert Materio) also crashed.

Cavendish was unscathed from the incident and finished the race in 96th place, but his absence meant that his team could not play a role in the finale sprint, which was won by Arnaud De Lier (Lotto-Soudal).

Simone Consonni (Cofidis) finished second in the final as well, with Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) third, Milan Menten (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB) fourth and Sam Bennett fifth.

Cavendish's bad luck continued as he suffered his second accident in two days. He also suffered mechanical problems on Saturday at the Heilen Vastgård Heiste Pile, where de Lier took the win.