Italian Elia Viviani won the Olympics men’s track omnium Monday despite a crash in the points race caused by sprint rival Mark Cavendish of Great Britain. Viviani picked himself up off the track after the mid-race pile-up and carried on to control the 40km event and take gold.

The crash saw South Korean Park Sanghoon suffer burns and bruises, ending with a trip to hospital. “It was my fault, I should have been looking where I was going a bit more,” said Cavendish, right after losing his temper with a Brazilian TV reporter who had asked him about the incident. “I hope he [Park] is alright, really. I apologized to Elia when he went down.”

Viviani dusted himself down and rode on, but he felt no hard feelings toward Cavendish. “I’m not angry, it’s a bike race, we’re on the track, single speed, no brakes, so when one guy changes direction in front of you and another one doesn’t read the change of direction, he crashes,” said the 27-year-old Italian. “It’s not his fault. He had the Korean guy in half-wheel on the right and normally you stay on [behind] the wheel.”





Italian Elia Viviani won the Olympics men’s track omnium Monday despite a crash in the points race caused by sprint rival Mark Cavendish of Great Britain. Viviani picked himself up off the track after the mid-race pile-up and carried on to control the 40km event and take gold.

The crash saw South Korean Park Sanghoon suffer burns and bruises, ending with a trip to hospital. “It was my fault, I should have been looking where I was going a bit more,” said Cavendish, right after losing his temper with a Brazilian TV reporter who had asked him about the incident. “I hope he [Park] is alright, really. I apologized to Elia when he went down.”

Viviani dusted himself down and rode on, but he felt no hard feelings toward Cavendish. “I’m not angry, it’s a bike race, we’re on the track, single speed, no brakes, so when one guy changes direction in front of you and another one doesn’t read the change of direction, he crashes,” said the 27-year-old Italian. “It’s not his fault. He had the Korean guy in half-wheel on the right and normally you stay on [behind] the wheel.”

Read more at http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/08/news/viviani-wins-rio-gold-despite-cavendish-crash_418165#XvTzl2VMPu6iSP4g.99