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.