In his third Olympics, Mark Cavendish realised his goal of winning an Olympic medal on Monday night.
The British rider finished second in the Omnium behind Italian Elia Viviani.
There was controversy in the final race of the six-stage event. Cavendish caused carnage during the points race when he crashed into Park Sang-hoon. The crash with the Korean caused him to hit event leader Viviani. Australia's Glen O'Shea was also caught in the crash.
The race was temporarily halted while the Korean received medical attention. He was taken from the track on a stretcher.
Viviani got back on his bike and did enough to ensure he eventually won gold.
Cavendish faced a wait after the race to see if he would be penalised for the crash. He was not and picked up the silver medal.
As British media did not ask Cavendish about the crash, neither did the BBC in their interview with him, a Dutch journalist posed questions to the Manx cyclist.
He got some curt treatment from Cavendish.
First of all, the British press didn't pose Cavendish the question whether he should have been DQ'd for his move.
— Thijs Zonneveld (@thijszonneveld) August 15, 2016
So I did. I showed him the rerun on my laptop. Cavendish asked me: "The guy wasn't Dutch, was he?" Me: "What?"
— Thijs Zonneveld (@thijszonneveld) August 15, 2016
Me: "Would you care to comment on that move?"
Cav: "I could sue you for that, do you know that?"
Me: "What for? Asking a question?"— Thijs Zonneveld (@thijszonneveld) August 15, 2016
And then he walked away, cursing.
— Thijs Zonneveld (@thijszonneveld) August 15, 2016
Cavendish did later admit that the crash was his fault.
It was my fault, I should have been looking more. I hope he's all right. I apologised to Elia after he went down.
Also, gold medalist Viviani relieved Cavendish of any guilt.
It's not his fault. The Korean guy was halfway on his wheel to the right. Normally you stay on the wheel. Cav was in the front and changed direction so it's all normal. It's a normal crash on the track.
