[Quote] whiney little snot bag from Cav [/Quote]

Yeh, typical Cav to mention all the nutritionists, analysts, skin suit designers and backroom boys that all worked hard for team GB and deserved to be on the podium…………….

Chapeau cav. Must have been a hugely stressful time, the last few weeks culminating in a tight race and then a great interview straight off the track. Of course he has mixed emotions, he didn’t set out to come second. Especially after twice being stuffed by team tactics in past games (which most track cyclists are pretty much exempt from) it’s great to see him get a well-earned reward at last.

As for Cav being a whiney whingebag. Yes he is a massively self-centred individual, that’s why he’s the best road rider in terms of grand tour stage wins of his and many generations. He could have ridden in the TP and got gold there, whether it’s true that others ‘blocked’ him from it i don’t know. There’s a few alpha males in the set up and clashes will occur.

Likewise Wiggins, another that there’s much to admire but plenty to dislike about.

What do we want – winners, or nice children with an ‘after you’ mentality. Like Louis Smith, if you’ve trained hours a day every day for four years and then don’t get the gold you believe you were capable of – i’m OK with people being pissed off about that. i think their flaws make them more human.

(otoh – I recently read that wiggins didn’t pay froome his share of the TdF winnings, after he witheld the money over loyalty issues in 2012, and it wasn’t until sir dave intervened that it was sorted. That’s a step too far)

I concede to the fair points above. Yes I’d rather have the personality’s and I’ve got to say I really felt Louis Smiths pain.

Don’t know if I saw the interview you are referring to, but it sounds like he’s making a valid point.

Though I suspect he puts FAR more pressure on himself to get gold than anyone external does.

Cav ( like wiggins) has a personality. Cav wears his heart on his sleeve and says what he thinks.

I’d far rather that than the bland anodyne lack of personalities many sportmen have. The vast majority of top sportspeople have flaws / huge egos. Ones that are nice rarely do well. Hoy being a notable exception

@Nobeer yes as above all the bbc video you can’t see outside the uk, well not least without some tech and even then not on mobile devices.

I do feel for him not making the pursuit team as a 5th member to ride one round, yes it would have been a little bit of a gift but he’s earnt it imho and wouod have got the job done. He made a point of saving he was dissapointed not to get the pursuir OR in that round

Cav speaks his mind, he doesn’t care much for PC – he mentioned how he was dissapointed Shane couldn’t be there as he onviously feels a lot of his and the teams progress has been down to him. Not PC given his departure that but honest. Ditto he said how despite being a pro for 10 years he’d learnt stuff (nurition ?) in this build up.

Finally BTW Cav can do 90 days in the UK and not change his tax status.

Maybe we should push for the return of non-competitive sport, where everyone gets a medal for trying and being unmotivated and lazy needn’t be a bar to success. Then we wouldn’t need to be all fierce and determined and can wander through sport because results don’t count as long as we all have a nice time and get to wear nice uniforms.

FFS – it was a racing incident, not a deliberate takedown.

Haven’t seen any coverage of the dirty bastard that tripped Mo Farah over trying to stop him getting his gold. I think that was a foreigner too. There’s a theme here, we need a foreigner free olympics so all our nice British people can win all the prizes.

I’m a big fan of Cav but it looked intentional to me. Cav looked twice to his left then swerved down across the Korean guy. What did he expect to happen? You can call it a ‘racing incident’ but the only way this wasn’t intentional was if he just didn’t see the Korean, and I simply don’t believe that.

see 25 seconds in on this https://cdn.streamable.com/video/mp4/hyo2.mp4

This is the quote from the winner, who had the most to loose from the crash.

“It’s not his fault. The Korean guy was halfway on his wheel to the right, whereas normally you stay on the wheel. Cav was in front and changed direction. For sure it was a bad moment in the race but it’s a normal crash on the track.”

I know nothing about track cycling rules and etiquette so I’ll take his word as the truth.

(‘Korean guy’ though – he didn’t know his name?)

I suspect none of them did (in the same way Usain Bolt won’t know the name of every 100m runner at the Olympics). We’re no better here though, and I’m just as guilty as the rest of you. For the record his name is Sanghoon Park, though I can’t find any updates on his condition.

Apparently the very credible Michael Rasmussen thinks it was worse than doping though 😆

What Cavendish just did is worse than what any russian lab could possible come up with ! Absolute #bs #Rio2106 Should be DQ

— Michael Rasmussen (@MRasmussen1974) August 15, 2016

Intentional, rubbish.

Having watched that version of it again, I’m even more convinced it’s partly the korean rider’s doing (don’t want to say fault)

If you pause and still scroll through at 24s you can see Cav looking left to I think Viviani and the Aussie coming through under the Korean. He’s not looking at the Korean. If you scroll enough you can get the Korean in shot and he’s also looking left at the same scene.

Scroll on, and as cav swings down to get onto the IT/Aus pair, the Korean swings up and into cav’s rear wheel without looking to his right. He makes no attempt to alter his line, likewise cav although at this point and in those helmets i suspect the Korean’s in his blindspot anyway. So cav swings into the korean’s altered path and the korean makes no move to adjust it in response.

Then you can get the same in a wider shot at 35s and see that at the point Cav instigates his move he has 3/4 of a length lead over the Korean, so not clear water but a substantial lead, and there’s maybe 4-5 feet of lateral separation. By the time they collide they’ve both contributed to that 5 feet becoming zero.

Racing incident, nothing to see.

@copa – Which bit of “Cav caused it but it wasn’t deliberate” don’t you understand? Everyone from the commissaires to the BBC to Viviani to others on this forum have looked at it and seen it for what it is – an accident which is what happens in sport from time to time.

My initial reaction on seeing Viviani lying on the deck was “oh no, not the right way to lose your gold medal position”

Guess I just assumed the track cycling world at that level was small enough they’d all know each other personally.

http://road.cc/content/news/201080-colombian-federation-reportedly-set-challenge-cavendish-medal-video

Who knows, maybe the armchair experts will see how the real experts viewed it.

This. Given these guys are as hard as nails its moving to see his reaction. So much work over so many years. These chances come so rarely, if ever for so many riders.

As for the rest here;

Do.Not.Feed.The.Troll.

How come when someone crashes out, as Viviani did, they are able to rejoin the race without having to catch up? Does this rule leave the race open for abuse?

(or have I missed something)

PS I was shocked Cav didn’t get dq’d, but hey I don’t know the rools either!

I’m surprised there aren’t more comings together. Viviani almost caused another.

Well once we are finally free of the shackles of the EU we can have our very own “World Series”. Just for us.

Ah, okay….ta! 🙂

I thought it a really nice touch when the BBC commentary switched to a close up of Victoria Pendleton and Anna Mears having an emotional touchy-feely moment trackside, two of the fiercest competitors caught in a moment of career reflection.