Italian shakes off crash to collect omnium gold
Italy’s Elia Viviani recovered from a crash before breaking down in floods of tears in his parents’ arms after winning the men’s cycling omnium gold on Monday.
“My dad and mom are here so it was an emotional moment,” said the champion.
Viviani was consistently strong over the two-day, sixevent race. British road sprint star Mark Cavendish finished second and 2012 gold medalist Lasse Norman Hansen of Denmark was third.
The Italian hit the boards in a crash that was caused by Cavendish about a third of the way into the final event, the 40km points race.
South Korea’s Park also sustained Sanghoon road 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 asked him about the incident.
“I hope he (Park) is all right, 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 (bikes with) 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.
“It’s not his fault. He had the Korean guy in half-wheel on the right and normally you stay on (behind) the wheel.”
Cavendish rode a steady points race but Viviani marked him throughout, the Briton unable to make significant inroads into the Italian’s lead, which he held since winning the third discipline late on Sunday.
“I’m happy. But for the points I lost in elimination, I could have been right up with Elia,” said Cavendish, who was missing only one major honor from his resume before this race — an Olympic medal.
“There was nothing I could do about that ... but give him (Viviani) credit, he was strong.
“I’m happy, I wanted gold but I got my medal, it’s really nice.
“To have made it gold would have filled the collection, but that’s the way I am.”
Hansen, whose hopes suffered a crushing blow on Sunday when he finished last in the elimination race, started clawinghiswaybackintocontention by gaining a lap in the points race.
But he didn’t have enough juice left to take crucial sprint points as Cavendish eventually settled for keeping hold of second place rather than challenging Viviani for the win.
The Italian finished first in the elimination race, second in the flying lap and third in both the individual pursuit and 1km time trial.
That made up for a seventhplace finish in the opening scratch race, his only real blip.
Cavendish came only seventh in the elimination and sixth in both the scratch and time trial, leaving him with a lot of ground to make up — 16 points — in the final discipline.
But this came less than a month after he won four stages on the road during July’s Tour de France, taking his total to 30.
“He’s achieved two different things on two different levels,” said British head coach Iain Dyer.
“He’s come out of the Tour de France this year with four stage wins to crack 30 in total, whichonitsowninanyrider’s career would be a massive achievement.”
Both Hansen and world champion Fernando Gaviria of Colombia threatened to make things interesting by gaining a lap in the final race, but Viviani and Cavendish mastered the sprints to keep their noses in front.
Viviani won the 14th and 15th sprints, collecting five points each time, to ensure he would win, despite Cavendish’s best efforts.