For professional road cycling, crashes and accidents are inevitable.
No one can guarantee they'll go their entire career without a single accident.
Crashes like the one at the UAE Tour, happening within the final few hundred meters, just shy of the finish line, are all too common.
Take Astana's lead sprinter, Mark Cavendish, who was also competing in this race. During a final sprint years ago, he took an elbow from Peter Sagan—then the lead sprinter for the Bora Team—and subsequently fell into a slump that lasted five years.
He even came close to retiring on the spot.
Therefore, strictly speaking, Huang Chong's crash was just one of the most common types of incidents seen on the World Tour circuit.
Of course, his own analysis was spot-on. If he hadn't instinctively chosen to ditch his bike to save his skin when he saw the Jieke Team rider barreling toward him, he likely would have gone down with the bike as it tipped, his entire body slamming hard onto the pavement.
