Rio 2016 Olympics

I thought even Chris Hoy said it wasn't Cav's fault? Not that I agree...

Respect to Hansen, he's put a lot of work in. Trying to make up for his awful devil yesterday maybe.

Surely that wasn't intentional, Cav could have easily gone down too

Be interesting to see Viviani's tweets later

That interview from Cav - does he always make such little sense or is that just post-race exhaustion?

I wonder whether he expected to tuck in behind a Korean who he thought would be on for a break and completely misjudged slotting in?

Korean guy moves up over the blue line about 2 ft just as Cav dives

The new omertà in cycling seems to be talking about Cav's attack. The interviewer didn't want to ask him - fair enough because he'd probably swear at her - but Balding and Hoy didn't talk about it either.

I'm no bike racer, but I do ride a bike. There's no way I'd use it to bludgeon another rider, because I'd know I am as likely to go down.

"It was my fault, I hope he's alright, you know"

I'm no bike racer, but I do ride a bike. There's no way I'd use it to bludgeon another rider, because I'd know I am as likely to go down.

But you wouldn't. Back end vs front end, back end wins.

Not saying it was intentional.

Masterclass from Trott in the elimination

At the very best it was stupid and careless.

Proper untouchable.

Yeah but pulling a move like that intentionally puts him up in Hollywood bad-guy status, the likes of Rowdy Burns in the forgotten classic, 'Days of Thunder'. I mean was he looking around, sizing it up, and using the Korean rider as the ball in a game of skittles to take Viviani out, or was he looking behind too much and veered his front wheel? Or maybe too focused on Viviani and failed to notice the Korean rider? No need to assume the worst is all.

Genuine human error? Brainfart? Lapse of focus? It looked very weird, my reaction was why the fuck did he do that? But rationally he can be a dick but I can't see him intentionally trying to injure riders by causing a crash. How many has he been in? You just don't do that.

From the Guardian article:

Viviani, who went into the final race in first place, started strongly but was knocked off his bike by South Korea’s Park Sang-hoon, who had collided with Cavendish. The Team GB rider was not penalised over the incident, and joined Hansen in taking the fight for gold to Viviani.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/15/mark-cavendish-silver-rio-olympics-cycling-omnium

I appreciate these articles have to be written very quickly (and this is a problem we know from numerous on-road collision reports), but it is surely Cavendish who collides with the Korean, not the Korean with Cavendish. Cavendish stops looking back just before he makes the move and either overestimates his speed (he's clearly too slow) or there really was malice aforethought. I don't believe for a moment that he didn't see the Korean rider.

Is there something I don't know about track rules that exonerates him?

Yeah but still a massively risky move to make. Espesh if you're trying to win it.

He just barges down the track right across the Korean who had no escape. Hard to think he imagined the Korean being ahead by the time the move completed.

Imagine if the men's elimination had gone more to form - Hansen must be ruing that performance.

I'm not saying he doesn't massively fuck up, just questioning whether he did it on purpose.

I don't think it was intentional. It looked like he was watching Viviani coming and went to drop down, but expected to get round Park. He either misjudged his speed or Park didn't notice the move and failed to react.

I really, really dislike Cav, so I'm not sticking up for him in any way but I'm going to say it was a dangerous dick move rather than actually malicious.

Talking of dick moves, nice piece about Inverdale here. Worth a read to the end.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/aug/15/andy-murray-john-inverdale-olympic-tennis-bbc-williams

Thanks for gif. Was busy enjoying a gig so missed this action

I just watched the horse ballet. What. The. Actual. Fuck.

Will the horses get medals? :-P