Australian cyclist Mark Renshaw finished second in the final stage at the Tour of Dubai after teammate Mark Renshaw nearly crashed.
German Marcel Kittel won his third stage and American Taylor Phinney took the overall title.
Renshaw was part of a perfect Omega-Pharma QuickStep leadout for Cavendish at the end of the 123km stage from Dubai to Burj-Khalifa.
But 1.5km from the finish the British sprint ace hit a traffic bollard.
Renshaw then had to quickly adjust and contested the bunch finish, but Kittel was too strong.
"The incident was only with a little more than a kilometre to go and we had to make a quick change of planning, so finishing second is probably the maximum I could do," Renshaw said.
Renshaw and Cavendish are on the same team for the first time since 2011.
Then the Australian was the main lead-out rider for Cavendish at in a successful season at HTC-Highroad.
Cavendish said they had planned their sprint well in Dubai before his near-disaster.
"It's what can happen - it's a dangerous sport," Cavendish said.
"I hit some bollard in the road and I've got a swollen hand and it ripped the chain out.
"I just count myself lucky because if it was a concrete or a metal one like in Europe I wouldn't be here to talk about it right now.
"The team carried on and we have to be happy with Renshaw taking second.
"The team did a good job and It showed that if things had gone a bit better we could have got the win."
