Rio 2016 Olympics

I actually think dressage might be the one Olympic sport I actually want to try. I can ride horses, I can do ballet, how hard can it be?

But you also run and cycle? Or do you mean Olympic sports you haven't tried yet.

The thing is that these things seem to happen with Cav when things aren't quite going his way; Hansen laps the pack and gets 20 points, Cav inexplicably barrels into a rider he's just finished looking at. Reminded me of the 2014 Tour when he got boxed in on the sprint finish at his mum's home town and decided to try to push Gerrans aside, fucking his shoulder in the process leaving Kittel to take the win, but there's other occasions to pick from too.

It's a strange one-a generous evaluation would be is to think he's just frustrated and trying to pull off an audacious manoeuvre to pull it back but that still doesn't explain his impact with the Korean dude as there was nothing to gain and the slomo doesn't even show him flinch.

I'm just glad Viviani could still get back on the bike and finish-it would have been gutting for him to go out that way and we would have all missed that ten solid minutes of elated crying at the end.

Ones I've not tried - I've worked my way, fairly unsuccessfully, through the vast majority of the sports.

For someone whose awareness in a tight, frantic bunch sprint at higher speeds than during today's incident, it seems so unlikely that he coule have made such an mistake - but at the same time I've got no idea why he would do something like that deliberately.

Any news on the Korean?

Until only horse ballet remains...
They added trampolining this year didn't they?

I'm just going to wave this.

It's racing, shit happens. He's been on the receiving end too.

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And Golf, FFS.

The way that the performance kit shatters during those crashes has me think it's all made out of bone china

The man least able to hide emotions in an interview since Kevin Keegan. But I like that, makes it a bit dicey. First of all he shouted something like 'They would have done it had it been Wiggo' to no one in particular, then what was that garbled line in the middle?? I can't remember except it seemed to make absolutely no sense at all..

PS Trotto for prez

from bottom to top, Dutch journo's talk with Cav

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I've been watching the replay this morning. The thing that I can't get my head around is that Cav doesn't even flinch when the impact occurs. He doesn't look round to see what he just rode into.

I can't see how you can crash like that and keep your eyes straight ahead, without a flinch, unless you knew it was about to happen. Because you did it on purpose.

If he did do it on purpose, it must have been to try and knock out Vivian, surely? What other reason could he have?

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

https://twitter.com/TechnicallyRon/status/765249444082282500

How to improve dressage: Giraffes instead of horses

I think the idea of someone deliberately causing a crash, putting themselves and other riders in danger is frankly ridiculous.

Inverdale should have been removed from the airwaves bloody years ago.

I agree. It's crazy talk.

But he doesn't flinch. At all.

Can you conceive of diving down the banking in an Olympic final points race and riding straight into a bike that you had no idea was there, and not doing a massive "WTF was that?" flinch?

Maybe I'm just naive about his level of focus.

Do you really think he did that on purpose? That his bike handling skills are so good that he can purposefully cause a crash that takes out his main rival? Sheesh.

It was a mistake, in the heat of the moment and one he knows he made. The Korean rider also made a mistake, as he was overlapping on Cavendish's inside. I don't see much criticism of Viviani, who made a similar movement on the French rider late on in the race but thankfully both stayed upright.

These things happen in races, having a witch hunt on social media afterwards changes nothing.

My friend's theory that Cavendish losing is more of a story than him winning still stands.

Which is a testament to his success.

The whole thing is just bizarre. I'm glad the Dutch journalist could see the massive elephant in the room.

If that's a real exchange it'seems a very strange reaction. But in some way I do admire his complete lack of media polish.

Cav is a grumpy cunt, nothing new there.

Viviani's move was a massive dick move - also very sketchy riding. Very good bike handling by the French guy to avoid it, keep going and then give Viviani the 'oi' prod.

I don't think the Korean guy can be at fault for it - wasn't he just keeping going after Cav had swung up the track? He didn't seem to deviate from his line, the fault is all with Cav, just like it was for Viviani.

The difference I think is that Viviani's move looked more obviously accidental and like he swung down without looking.

I have no reason to doubt the truthfulness of the description of the exchange. not going to say anything about 'social media witch hunt'. footage is what it is, he looks twice, then veers off in what to me is a silly, very acute angle downward.

https://www.reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/4xvz22/mark_cavendish_causes_a_crash_at_the_olympics/

complete lack of media polish

This is one of the great things about the Olympics in general. I mean with Cav it's more surprising because he's a pro, but in the other sports, I love how unpolished and goofy they are. Real people, on TV!

Tetchy quotations here:

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/racing/olympics/mark-cavendish-admits-error-olympic-omnium-points-race-crash-275041?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social

Glenn O'Shea seems pretty calm about it.

I warmed to Cav a lot during this year's Tour, but I guess his attitude is different where he feels that he has over achieved, or done what he wants to. He's got such a competitive streak that he's annoyed with everyone at the minute, which is understandable I guess.

Park probably deserves an apology too.