Rio 2016: Mark Cavendish settles for silver in his search for Olympic glory

An Olympic medal at last for Mark Cavendish, a silver lining to ease past disappointments, but not before narrowly avoiding catastrophe in the omnium points race.

Cavendish looked to be the guilty party in a collision saw Korea’s Sanghoon Park leave the action on a stretcher, and two others come off, one of whom was race leader Elia Viviani of Italy.

Viviani was able to resume his bike but not Park, who required prolonged medical attention at track side before leaving on a stretcher.

Cavendish started the points race, the last of the six elements, in silver 16 points off the lead having posted the third fastest time in the penultimate test, the flying lap, at the start of the evening session.

The threat of calamity of the sort that accounted for Park is imminent in a discipline of rapidly evolving mass confusion played out over 40 kilometers, or 160 laps.

Every ten laps points are awarded for a sprint. There are points, too, for lapping the field. Thus a game of two-wheeled cat and mouse unfolds.

With ten laps to go Cavendish was still in in silver, a point clear of Dane Lasse Hansen, but with no chance of overhauling Viviani. The final sprint would decide the colour of his medal.

The Dane would not be the first rider in the world to suffer in a dash for the line. And so the medal that had eluded him throughout his career was his.

He is not the most diplomatic bloke in the world. He would say he is a straight talker, which is another way of saying bolshy bastard. When you are clocking up the stage wins in the Tour de France at the rate his has, second only to Eddy Merckx with 30, few are going to pull you up over etiquette.

Crash and burn as he has at two Olympic Games and all privileges are withdrawn. After road race defeat in London he infamously engaged a BBC correspondent over a line of questioning he didn’t like.

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Here there have been claims about a strained relationship with that other great British cycling hero, Sir Bradley Wiggins. While both plead exaggeration in the media over this issue, you could easily see how friction might develop in Cavendish’s urgent, edgy world.

Any rider identified by French sports bible L’Equipe as the greatest sprinter in the history of the Tour de France can self evidently pedal a bike. Any rider capable of winning world titles on the track, is clearly a talent. For one reason or another Cavendish has not managed to replicate his successes elsewhere in the Olympic arena.

The strategy to deliver road race gold in London failed when rival teams divined the plan and devised a method to counter it. In Beijing he was partnered in the Madison with a Wiggins drained by the effort of winning gold in the individual and team pursuit.

After winning four more stages in this year’s Tour, Cavendish dipped out to save himself for this. It looked a good decision last night.

Speaking to the BBC, the omnium silver medallist said: "I'm happy. Elia was the best guy there. If you take the points I lost in the elimination I would've been right with him.

"I have got my Olympic medal. That is the main thing. It is really nice, but gold would've finished the collection. But I am super happy, honestly. I did a pursuit yesterday and was unhappy I didn't break the olympic record, that's just me. People are forgetting the team we have got behind us. It is incredible how they have worked. Without those guys I wouldn't be here. Especially Shane Sutton. It would have been nice to have had him here."

Will he be competing in Japan in four years time? He replies: "I don't think so. I cannot do that Olympic circle again. But then I said that eight years ago. I will retire at some point, but then I will have a month at home and people will tell me to get back on the bike."