Great Britain’s Ollie Wood said he felt like he had been “rear-ended by a lorry” after a crash put paid to his and Mark Stewart’s chances in the men’s Olympic madison.
The British pair – current world silver medallists – finished 10th as Portugal won a historic first Olympic gold on the track.
While they never looked in contention, the Team GB riders picked up 11 points on the sprints but were lapped after Wood was brought down by the Netherlands’ Jan-Willem van Schip in one of several crashes.
He passed a concussion test before returning to the track though later said he was suffering knee and buttock pain.
Stewart was a late replacement for Ethan Hayter, who withdrew with a thigh strain suffered during Wednesday’s silver medal-winning team pursuit.
“I feel like I have been rear-ended by a lorry,” Wood, 28, told BBC Sport. “The biggest rider on the track hit me from behind.
“There were quite a few crashes in that segment of the race. I think everyone was so on their limit, cognitive function starts to go at that point.”
The Dutch team were later disqualified from the race and Van Schip fined £720 for a “blow with the helmet”, according to the commissaires’ decision.
Stewart, also 28, said: “It’s the Olympics; if there is anything we learned from the five days leading into this, it was going to be the hardest madison anyone has experienced.
“We were ready for it. At the end of the day we just lacked that little bit physically.”
An inspired performance over the 200 laps from Iuri Leitao and Rui Oliveira, including a blistering final sprint to win double points, saw them become Portugal’s first Olympic champions in Paris.
They finished on 55 points, eight points ahead of Italy who took silver. Bronze went to Denmark on 41.
But it was a race marred by several high-speed crashes, in addition to Woods’ collision, with Spain’s Albert Torres Barcelo stopped from returning to racing after banging his head on the boards in a crash.
Italians Simone Consonni and Elia Viviani looked set to take the win, but after Consonni hit the deck, they could not respond to Portugal’s late surge. Consonni’s sister, Chiara Consonni, won gold in the women’s madison on Friday.
Newly triumphant Portugal had never won a medal in track cycling before Leitao’s silver in the omnium on Thursday.
