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Great Britain’s Mark Cavendish claimed silver in the men’s omnium after coming behind Italy’s Elia Viviani.
Cavendish finally got his hands on an Olympic medal after missing out in his previous two Olympic games. He finished second in the six-stage omnium on 194 points, with Italy’s Elia Viviani taking gold on 207 points, while the defending champion, Denmark’s Lasse Norman Hansen, was further adrift taking bronze.
The Great British athlete was in a good position to go for gold after day one of the competition after finishing third. Cavendish started off impressively with a sixth place in the scratch race before being second fastest in the individual pursuit. He then had a disappointing elimination race coming seventh leaving him trailing in third.
The Team GB athlete performed impressively in the second, and final day of the competition. In the first event of the day, the time trial, Cavendish finished fifth. Then he came third in the flying lap leaving him in second place going into the last event.
Coming into the last event Mark Cavendish needed to constantly pick up points in the intermediate sprints to claim silver. That’s exactly what he did edging the defending champion, Denmark’s Lasse Norman Hansen, out in the battle for silver.
“I’m happy. Elia was the best guy there. If you take the points I lost in the elimination I would have been right with him,” Cavendish told BBC Sport.
“I have got my Olympic medal. It is really nice but gold would have finished the collection. I don’t think I’ll be going for Tokyo but you never know.”
Cavendish’s Olympic silver medal adds to his huge list of cycling achievements. The 31-year-old has won 30 stages in the Tour De France, second on the all time list. While he has won a stage in all three of the Grand Tours and won the green jersey of the Tour De France. Cavendish won gold in the Madison at the 2005, 2008 and recently, 2016 Cycling World Championships.
