Owain Doull finally made his World Tour debut for Team Sky in Abu Dhabi – and crashed!

The 23-year-old from Cardiff was doing lead-out duties for the team’s sprinter Elia Viviani on the first stage on Thursday.

But Doull was unfortunately caught-up in a pile up as the sprinters went through the 1km to go barrier.

Wales’ Olympic champ was able to get back on his bike and finish the stage along with sprinter Marcel Kittel.

The incident continued a dramatic start to his career with Sky with Doull being forced to pull out of last month’s Tour Down Under with a burst appendix.

Doull has revealed how he lost 7kg while recuperating following the operation in Adelaide.

“I’ve lost a lot of weight,”Doull told cyclingweekly. “Partly the appendix but more what happens with the appendix.

“I was throwing up, I didn’t eat for three days before going to hospital and while I was in hospital I didn’t eat at all I was just on drips and stuff.

“I went from 73kgs to 66kgs, so it’s quite a drop.”

Doull had been due to compete in the Classic season which gets underway this weekend but was switched to the Abu Dhabi Tour following the spell in hospital.

“We’ll see how this race goes. If I come out of this race well then I should hopefully slot back in with the Classics team,” he added.

Viviani escaped the late carnage to finish fifth as Britain’s Mark Cavendish bagged his first win of the season.

Doull will be given the same time as Cavendish as the crash happened inside the final 3km of the stage.

The race has three more stages including two for the sprinters before the finish on Sunday.