Mark Cavendish’s honest review of the Rio Olympics

Outspoken Manxman comapres Rio games to London 2012

Philippe Tremblay August 21, 2016

Mark Cavendish took home his first Olympic medals from the Rio Olympics. Cavendish did not ride in Britain’s team pursuit victory but as a member of the squad was awarded the gold medals. The 31-year-old Brit from the Isle-of-Man was unable to take another gold medal in the men’s omnium. The prolific Tour de France stage winner instead settled for a silver medal behind Italy’s Elia Viviani. Cavendish has always been one of cycling’s most outspoken athletes and that was no different when he appeared on British television program Sunday Brunch and made comments about the Rio games.

When asked how the Rio de Jainero games compared to the London games in 2012, Cavendish said, “Any country, any city really after London that had the games was going to have a tough job, cause London was just perfect wasn’t it?”

Cavendish went on to comment on the organization of the games saying, “It was alright, it was Latin, there wasn’t that much organization going on.”

Recounting the difficulties he and his track cycling teammates had getting into the Olympic velodrome, Cavendish said that they had difficulty trying to figure out which entrance security would allow them to go through with their bikes before finally befriending the security guards after a week.

Cavendish went on to comment about the food which he said, “was terrible, it wasn’t good at all.” When asked why he continued saying, “I think they were catering for so many people and if you haven’t got the resources to do that…”

However the food in Rio nor the disorganization Cavendish makes reference too doesn’t seem to have effected Canada’s cycling athletes who brought home two medals. The women’s team pursuit squad took home bronze as did mountain biker Catharine Pendrel helping contribute to Canada’s 22 Olympic medals at the games, equaling their record non-boycotted Olympic total medal haul from Atlanta in 1996.