Ollie Wood and Mark Stewart missed out on adding another cycling medal to Great Britain’s collection as Portugal won a historic first Olympic gold on the track in the men’s madison.
The British pair – current world silver medallists – finished 10th. They picked up 11 points on the sprints but were lapped after Wood was brought down in one of several crashes.
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.”
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.
Portugal had never won a medal in track cycling before Leitao’s silver in the omnium on Thursday.
