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news
Rio 2016 gold medal (picture Rio 2016, Alex Ferro).jpgElia Viviani takes omnium gold, Mark Cavendish gets silver
Elia Viviani has won omnium gold in Rio following an attacking and dramatic sixth and final event, the points race, with Mark Cavendish of Great Britain finally getting the Olympic medal he so coveted - albeit silver - and defending champion Lasse Hansen of Denmark doing his utmost to repeat his London 2012 success, animating the latter third of the race to take bronze.
The race will perhaps be best remembered by a crash caused when Cavendish swung down from high on the banking into the path of Korean rider Sanghoon Park, who was taken away on a stretcher, his neck in a brace and an oxygen mask over his mouth.
Cavendish stayed upright in the crash, which happened as he tried to get away a little under 50 laps into the 160 lap race which he had started in second place after the first five events, 16 points behind Viviani.
Park's bike, however, bounced into the path of Viviani, who came down, as did Australia's Glenn O'Shea behind him, and it seemed afterwards that the Italian was blaming Cavendish for what had happened.
Both Viviani and Cavendish attempted to escape and gain the extra lap that would bring an additional 10 points, but neither managed to get away. Nor did Hansen, who launched attack after attack, and moved ahead of Cavendish into the silver medal position.
The British rider, however, got back in front at the penultimate sprint with 10 laps remaining and ensured he kept ahead of Hansen on the final sprint to the line to take the medal that had eluded him in the Madison in Beijing eight years ago and at London 2012.
It's Team GB's eighth cycling medal at Rio, meaning they have hit the lower end of the target of 8-11 medals set by UK Sport, which provides the bilk of the national team's income through Lottery funding.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
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Inhumane system that now will be getting even worse.
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30 comments
I have greatly enjoyed the track cycling this week, both mens and womens. Could someone who knows more about it than me please let me know: Given that track bikes are fixed gear, are the Omnium riders allowed to choose different gears for the different events? (E.g. a bigger gear for the single flying lap than for the 12 or 16 lap individual pursuit). My guess is yes, but I'd be pleased to know for sure.
Good question! Like you, I would think yes and I'm not aware of any Technical Regs that prohibit it.
Something else I haven't seen discussed (though I'm sure it has been and I've missed it) was the USA bikes with LH chainsets in the (I think) Team Pursuit earlier?
Thanks for the answers on gearing, psling (and surly_by_name also).
On LH chainsets - Boardman and his fellow BBC commentator were talking about the Americans' LH chainsets, and also said that the bikes were in some other way asymmetric, with the intention of taking all those LH turns better
Yes.
Talking to A live TV audience straight after a race like that is something none of us can comprehend, what people dont understand is when they talk to these athletes they have a massive amount of adrenaline, testosterone etc pumping through their bodies and that effects everyone differently, look at the amount of athletes that burst into tears. If you look at Cavs interviews straight after races and ones when he has had time to settle they are very different.
Cav and Wiggins are very similar in that they say what they feel, unfortunatly that can make them appear petculant but it is very easy for us keyboard warriors to knock them for that when we have never been in that high stress, high adrenaline situation..
There is No Question Cav is the Greatest sprinter of all time and the balls he showed to come back into that situation at his stage of his career should be admired, Cav is one of the few athletes that will be honest and say Im here to win, take that as arrogant if you will but I for one think its better to be honest than wishy washy athletes saying oh ive trained hard i'll see how i go, leaving themsleves an out if they dont win.
Very true; even Steve Backshall burst into tears after his other half won a medal in the rowing - he wasn't even taking part!
Re. the crash. Viviani did the exact same thing later on in the race and almost took out another rider - he got away with it, unlike Cav.
It's racing, it happens.
Shame he couldn't get gold but he did pretty well for what is a road cyclist I feel
A certain irony there given Viviani's palmares (inc Tour of Britain)
Viviani is a good rider on the road, but his palmares don't bear any resemblance to the top road sprinters, and he has spent most of this year concentrating on the track.
I don't get the obssession with attitude and sportspeople. Loads of different types of people in the world, and they all have different personalities. I don't want them all to be affable automotons. I like seeing the aggression, disappointment, rivalrly. The good and bad moods. All of it. Makes it real to me.
Leave to posing to dressage or some balls.
Shite like SPOTY makes it worse. BBC choose which sports to focus on and how much exposure which athletes get to the public, then they ask the public to vote.
That's not rigged or anything.
Look at Mo Farah. His name is Mohammed. Mohammed Farah.
Stick that on your shortlist and see if he gets as many votes.
The whole thing is a lot of balls for small minds.
Crashes happen in track cycling - it was a racing incident. If you look at the race, there were quite a few near-misses. It's normal. It wasn't intentional on Cav's part, and Viviani said that Park was partly to blame. As to Cav's attitude when he loses, I think it's a reflection on his intensity, which is why he has become such a great champion.
He won't be happy with that. I think the way things are with the team nowadays (culture of winning, virtually unlimited funding and support staff) he and the team will see it as a failure. As do I.
An olympic silver medal a failure?
Armchair experts and their ridiculous comments.
Come back when you've got an olympic medal, and 30 TdF wins and a world championship.
Yeah, exactly - a failure within that context.
I doubt Cav will lose too much sleep over what Kadinski says. He has previously commented about what he think about internet forum people's opinions!
Given that he finished 6th in the World's earlier this year and had spent most of the season riding on the road then I would have thought that BC would be delighted with silver, beating Gaviria, the 2015 & 2016 world champion in the process.
Sportsmen at the highest level in any sport are entitled to see a second place as a failure if they wish. Just as we've seen it with Rosberg and Hamilton coming second in gp's, or Murray in grand slam finals, it is their prerogative, not ours.
Errr, yeah. Thats what I said - he won't be happy with that. He'll see it as a failure, and I agree with him.
Clearly I was too subtle for you so I'll try again. After putting in all that effort he is allowed to be disappointed by just falling short. On the other hand for somebody from the comfort of their armchair, saying a silver medallist is a failure, it just means you are an ar$e.
Clearly English isn't your strength so I'll try again.
He would have been focused on winning. that's what he was going all-out for. He'll see silver as a loss. A failure. He'll be dissapointed in the campaign. I can see where he's coming from and why he'd think that - he has an overwhelming will to win and he didn't.
Personally, If I won a silver I would be over the moon. It would be the pinnacle of my athletic career.
Not sure why you can't grasp a fairly basic concept.
No problem with the concept, and if you'd said this in your OP I doubt anyone would have argued, so back to your original point. You said several posts ago, that you say you see his silver as a failure. Here are your words: "he and team will see it as a failure. As I do". I say somebody sitting in an armchair calling a silver medal achievement a failure is an ar$e. Simple.
Yeah. Fairly basic English isn't it? Nothing too complicated I hope.
I'd be happy if I won a silver.
If I was Cavendish I would see it as a failure and I can see where he is coming from.
.
Cavendish is one of the all time great cyclists, with a character that talks direct no nonsense.
So pleased he won a medal and completes a already impressive palmares.
Well done Mark.
F*** the haters, of which there seem to be many on here.
Was stressing for him in the points race, really wanted him to get his medal. He's on form again so didn't want a failed Oly campaign screwing him mentally over the coming season.
Silver he can be proud of, chuffed for him. Really though, nothing on Laura Trott? Womens racing is immense at the moment, shouldn't be treated like an after thought.
Is this the way GB wants to win? Why is Cav still on the team? He doesn't understand what the games are about. But when you keep him in the team you are not much better!
I am sure his words to Jill Douglas were something like "you'd come straight to Brad." Jill was obviously waiting for some cue to go live as they were running a video replay just a second before. Embarrasing his antics. I am glad he finally won his medal for all the effort, but not at the cost of injury to another rider. An accident it may have been but his angle was too severe not to check the way was clear. Sometimes he has come off to his own cost before, but rarely been the innocent victim. Not his finest hour, which was probably his World Championship RR.
Always crashes and controversy with Cav.
Cav is great but after a loss, post race, he's cringeingly petulant.
Unfortunately I have to agree. Still, makes me think more highly of Froome in comparison so "every cloud"!
See how much it meant to Viviani - worthy winner too.
P.s. where is the Laura Trott article??? I mean WOW just WOW!!!!