Aust's painful Oly cycling campaign

Glenn O'Shea is the latest crash victim in an Australian Olympic cycling campaign plagued by bad luck.

O'Shea was among three riders to fall in a spill during the 40km points race, the last of six events in the omnium.

He was able to return to the race and finished seventh overall.

Italian Elia Viviani initially hit his bike in frustration when he also went down, given he was the overall leader.

But he resumed and produced a storming ride to win the gold medal.

South Korean Sanghoon Park was far less fortunate, colliding with British sprint ace Mark Cavendish on a bend.

The Korean had to be stretchered off the track.

While there was criticism of Cavendish on social media, O'Shea saw it differently.

"Cav moved as someone was going up and that happens all the time, that's bike racing," he said.

"That wasn't his fault, it was an accident."

O'Shea was missing some skin, but said he was not badly hurt.

"I had a split second to make a decision and over I went," he said.

"I bounced back pretty quickly - I hit my knee, but the adrenalin kicked in."

O'Shea said he had mixed emotions about seventh place, which followed fifth place in the event at the London Games.

"It is unlucky - I don't think I've fallen off in an omnium, ever," O'Shea said.

"It happened to be at the Olympics.

"Today was my day to come down."

Cavendish won silver and London Olympic gold medallist Lasse Norman Hansen from Denmark took the bronze medal.