Rio Olympics 2016: Mark Cavendish threatens to sue reporter who asked him question about crash he admitted causing

MARK CAVENDISH threatened to sue the reporter who asked him about the crash he admitted causing in last night's omnium.

The Manx Missile took silver but could easily have been disqualified for causing a pile-up.

Cav swerved in front of Korea's Sanghoon Park, who had to be rushed to hospital and given oxygen.

But after being quizzed about the 160-lap race's flashpoint, Cav, who once swiped a reporter's dictaphone, saw red.

Dutch journalist and former cyclist Thijs Zonneveld said he was threatened with legal action after daring to probe on the race's biggest controversy.

He said: "First of all, the British press didn't pose Cavendish the question whether he should have been DQ'd for his move.

"So I did. I showed him the rerun on my laptop. Cavendish asked me: 'The guy wasn't Dutch, was he?' Me: 'What?'

"Me: 'Would you care to comment on that move?' Cav: 'I could sue you for that, do you know that?'

"Me: 'What for? Asking a question?'

"And then he walked away cursing."

But Cavendish, who also took out gold medallist Elia Viviani, admitted he was in the wrong.

He said: "It was my fault. I should have been looking more. I hope he's all right. I apologised to Elia after he went down."

The Brit was also caught having a dig at Bradley Wiggins just before his post-race interview.

Whingeing about the length of time it took for him to be asked a question by the BBC, he said: "They'd be straight on for Brad, wouldn't they?"

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