Laura Kenny crashed in the Omnium to put a halt to her pursuit of a third medal in this Tokyo Olympics, eventually settling for sixth place overall in her final event of these Games.
The 29-year-old was caught in a massive pile-up during the opening scratch race of the four-discipline event, already adrift of the top places and finding herself without the legs to make up the difference.
“It was just a nightmare,” said Kenny afterward. “When I went down, I just thought, that is it, there’s not a chance of getting this back.
“You just can’t make it up! I thought coming into this, I’ve had my bad luck, surely, and then lo and behold, I get taken down again."
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Kenny then rebounded, winning the tempo race to take her back up to fifth overall, but the energy spent by the halfway stage then cost her in the elimination and points races.
"I had a mountain to climb, I think the tempo race I just rode off adrenaline and then we only had 20 minutes and then the elimination race I couldn't have felt any further away from me if I tried, when I set off I just felt really tired instantly and thought 'this is bad'," Kenny explained.
"And then in the points race I had nothing to lose, I just wish I'd got a lap and then I'd have jumped up the standings."
Having already taken silver in the team pursuit before achieving her main objective of gold in the Madison already meant it was "job done" for Kenny this Olympic cycle.
"I think to be honest I was done after the Madison, you just hit such a high and that really was the race we targeted and we really did put so much work into that," Kenny admitted. "And because we did win I could just go 'job done' and obviously to then re-focus and come into an Omnium where you are on your own...it just wasn't to be."
It wasn't all bad news for the Kenny household or Great Britain on the final day of track cycling, as Jason Kenny went on to take Keirin gold following a swashbuckling display on the track.
“Jason said to me last night if you win the omnium we can make a close out of gold medals and he’s only gone and done it, hasn’t he?” Laura Kenny said.
"[It's] unbelievable, the number of people that came up to me afterwards saying they would have counted him out of this, so would I? I was speaking to him last night and he was like 'I just want to go home' and then obviously when he [attacked] I was like 'he's only gone and done it'. Typical Jason that."
