Jan-Willem van Schip and his teammate have been disqualified from the men’s Madison final at the Olympics after the Dutch cyclist knocked a rival off his bike.
The 29-year-old world champion came up behind Ollie Wood late in the 200-lap race and appeared to deliberately turn down on the Great Britain rider, who crashed heavily to the turf.
It was initially unclear if van Schip had headbutted Wood or simply barged him out of the way but it was later confirmed he had been kicked out and fined $1750 for a “blow with the helmet”, officially punished for “improper conduct and behaviour that endangers another rider”.
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Van Schip was riding with Yoeri Havik, a pairing that won last year’s Madison world championship ahead of Wood and his teammate Mark Stewart.
Wood passed a concussion test after the crash but wore knee pain as well as a sore behind, while Stewart rushed back onto the track to salvage a ninth-place finish for Great Britain.
“He hit me so hard, I felt like a crash-test dummy,” the Briton said.
“It’s not my first crash — just a bit different when you get hit from behind, you don’t see it coming. Instead of taking a high line around the track, I thought he’d cut it a bit fine and just ploughed into me.
“I’m trying to catch my breath. I have no clue, absolutely no clue (what happened). All I know is I got hit really hard, from behind, by literally the biggest rider on the track.”
Wood, remarkably, appeared to absolve van Schip of some blame.
“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,” he said.
But it will only add to a fiery atmosphere ahead of the final day of competition.
The incident followed contact between Dutch and British riders a day earlier, with Netherlands coach Mehdi Kordi accusing Jack Carlin of playing “rugby on wheels” in the men’s sprint final.
Carlin won bronze after avoiding being disqualified for a clash with Jeffrey Hoogland.
Those two rivals could meet again in the keirin final, the last men’s race of the program, on Sunday.
The Madison final was won by Portugal’s Iuri Leitao and Rui Oliveira, with Italian pair Simone Consonni and Elia Viviani snaring silver and Denmark’s Niklas Larsen and Michael Moerkoev claiming bronze.
Australia’s Sam Welsford and Kelland O’Brien finished 12th.
There were more heavy crashes late in the Madison with Spain’s Albert Torres Barcelo hitting his head after going down.
He could be seen remonstrating with officials after being stopped from returning to the race.
Italy had been on track for gold but their two riders clipped wheels on a disastrous handover, delivering the advantage to Portugal.
An Italian victory would have secured a remarkable Madison double for the Consonni family after Simone’s sister Chiara won gold in the women’s event.
