calamarichris

Are we all so in love with Cavendish that no one mentions his premeditated stuffing of the Korean rider Sanghoon in front of Viviani? He clearly took a long, hard look back and braced himself before casually diving down the bank in front of the guy in a brazenly calculated dirty "Ben Hur" move.
I can't believe what I just saw, and yet I've seen him do it before in a right hand corner leading into a Tour finish, for which everyone of course gave him a pass.
Utterly low rent.

DLBroox

I can't find video. If anyone finds a link please post one.

badger1

Really?
Note comments by both Viviani and O'Shea: Olympic Games: Cavendish admits blame for Omnium crash | Cyclingnews.com

StepDown

Vid of crash, Cav looks back than takes Sanghoon Park’s line by cutting in front of him. Cav has been making these kind of "bully" moves all of his riding career. I feel he should have been disqualified and the silver given to someone else.

steppy


Mark Cavendish starts a crash, Elia Viviani goes down | NBC Olympics

DLBroox

Thanks for the link.

I read what the other riders said but when you watch the video you can easily see Cav take a long look at the rider. Seems blatant to me. But I'm not a pro so what do I know?

JonnyHK 

Deliberate or incompetent. Not much of a choice...

Should have been DQed.

Bolo Grubb

It does look bad, but his competitors on track are saying that it is part of track racing so I really don't know

Bandera

For myself w/ track racing experience: It's racing.
The rider in front has the track: Pay attention, don't overlap wheels and be ready for moves up/down the banking if following.

-Bandera

DLBroox

So what could the rider have done to avoid Cav when he made the move? Even if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, do you just get knocked down?

Bandera

Never overlap the rear wheel of a rider who has taken the Front & is Up on the Banking above you.
Track racing 101: S_hit happens.

-Bandera

pacificaslim

Yep. Cav was not looking at the guy he hit, who was in no real way involved in the race by then and should have just stayed out of the way. He overlapped Cavs wheel when Cav dove down to get in with Viviani.

calamarichris

So some of us are indeed so in love with Cavendish.
Winning is winning, screw sportsmanship? I just hope we'll remain consistent in our beliefs when someone does the same thing to Cavendish.

"That's track racing." is an excuse now? The erosion of sport is happening before our eyes. Be interesting to check the post histories of the Cav defenders to see where they stood on Armstrong before his Oprah episode.

Why the post-Armstrong slump in bike sales? Maybe there is an economic price on top of the moral to such behavior.

calamarichris

Gold Medal winner Viviani and the Dane Bronze winner were clearly disgusted with Cav during the medal presentation. No shaking hands, no shoulder pats--just take this picture and let me get away from this terdbird. IMO Viviani's being a gracious sportsman in the link above because doing anything else will reflect poorly on his country.
Cavendish doesn't appear to know or care about this...
Thijs Zonneveld @thijszonneveld Me: "Would you care to comment on that move?"
Cav: "I could sue you for that, do you know that?"
Me: "What for? Asking a question?"

Kudos to Viviani for coming back and taking it anyway with supreme class. And to the astounding performances of the other Brits who took home so much gold without resorting to such cheap chicanery.

Wilfred Laurier

I saw it and expected a DQ, or at least a penalty, which did not come.. I assumed I just don't know enough about the rules and it was in fact not illegal.

Bandera

Correct.

calamarichris

Illegal? No.
Intentional? Absolutely. What was his reaction at "being hit" from the rear? Didn't flinch, didn't even look back.
Low-rent POS.

Bandera

Bicycle racing, particularly in massed start events on the track, involves a certain amount of contact between riders.
Neophyte riders go through "bump drills" to develop the mind set/skills to maintain control and get on with it.
World class track riders have the experience to stay up and the focus to not freak out and keep right on racing.

Overlapping a rider who has the front and is up on the banking above you is a recipe for disaster: Track Racing 101.

That being said Cav's move was both bone-headed and unfortunate, not Illegal or Evil.
Get over it, it's Racing.

If anyone has a Velodrome in their locality I highly recommend taking the Basic "Rider Certification" course, being on the track goes to the heart of cycling as Sport.
There will be far fewer left turning 18 wheelers, texting/drunken drivers and a bit less construction debris to content with.
A serious effort at technique/pace/adaptation to the operation of fixed gear machines on the banking under strict rules will be required along with a desire to Go Fast.
The rules, regulations, etiquette & safety requirements of the environment will be fully explained/enforced on any UCI certified track : Have at it!

-Bandera

Rollfast

There is no crying and all that other stuff. You shouldn't be out of contention and interfering with forward traffic still in the race. Olympics or not. Lucky that it didn't affect Cav as well. Nobody made him immortal either.

Lakerat

So based on the rules and etiquette, taking out a lower line overtaking rider in front of your contender is a brilliant move?

Rollfast

I doubt it, but I don't think not getting out of the way of a real contender is wicked cool neither. I'm not even watching the Olympics anyway.

atbman

Curiously enough, there were trackside judges, responsible for spotting infringements of the rules, present. I assume that they did see the collision and were aware of any rule which Cavendish might have broken. In the absence of any action on their part, the collision and how it was caused was not regarded as a DQ'ing offence, regardless of the expertise of people on this forum.

If anyone thinks that he was given a hall pass because of his fame, bear in mind what happened to Vicky Pendleton in the London Olympics - DQed from the team sprint and relegated in one of the final's heats in the sprint.

DeceptivelySlow

I guess track racing is more like american football than I would have known. Cav apparently did the equivalent of a hard but clean hit on a receiver making a catch going across the middle.

cyclezen

**** stinks no matter where you find it


happens all to often with cav-****

the guy is a ****storm on wheels

and caveman takes down haussler, Boonen, ciolek, etc..

dcsix

^^^Holy mackerel! He spends a lot of time on the deck!

FullGas

Cav has been a ****** and a dirty rider for a long time.