Elia Viviani wins Olympic Omnium gold despite crash in Points race (VIDEO)

Aug 15, 2016

Italy’s Elia Viviani has won gold in the Men’s Omnium in Rio despite crashing in the final event – the 40-km Points race.

Viviani had gone into the final event in the lead, but with a number of riders including Colombia’s Fernando Gaviria and Great Britain’s Mark Cavendish close behind the Team Sky rider.

Unfortunately for Viviani, he was knocked to the ground early on in the race by South Korea’s Park Sang-hoon. Cavendish had collided with the South Korean who then slid down the banking taking out both Viviani and Glenn O’Shea of Australia. Cavendish avoided being penalised for the incident.

Viviani needed a replacement bike but was able to get going again. Despite the crash, the Italian fended off his nearest challengers to take the gold medal on 207 points.

Cavendish moved ahead of defending champion Lasse Norman Hansen in the closing laps to take the silver with 194 points – his first ever Olympic medal. Hansen hung on to take the bronze medal, just two points behind Cavendish.