Australian cyclist Richie Porte has withdrawn from the Giro d’Italia due to injuries sustained in a stage 13 crash.
Porte was tipped as a pre-race favourite but the Team Sky rider struggled with bad luck and crashed heavily on Friday, landing on his knee and hip.
The Tasmanian battled through the individual time trial on Saturday night (AEST) before losing another 27 minutes to the race leaders on Sunday.
Team Sky’s medical team took the decision to withdraw Porte on Monday, at the second rest day of the three-week race.
“The Giro has been my main goal this year and I’ve worked incredibly hard all season with this in mind,” Porte said.
“I’ve had a lot of bad luck this week with the puncture and the time penalty, but it was the crash on Friday that has taken its toll.
“I’m gutted it’s ended this way and that I can’t stay and support Leo, Elia and the team in the last week.
“The plan for me now is to take some time off the bike, get the medical treatment that I need and reset my goals for the rest of the season and come back fighting.”
Porte went into the Giro as Team Sky’s designated team leader, the first time he had the role for a three-week Grand Tour.
With less than 10km left in stage 10 last week, Porte was in an ideal position at third overall, just 22 seconds behind race leader Alberto Contador.
But he punctured, costing him more than 40 seconds, and controversially was also penalised two minutes for accepting a wheel from Orica-GreenEDGE rider Simon Clarke.
He plummeted to 12th overall, more than three minutes off the pace.
He is expected to be one of Tour de France champion Chris Froome’s key support riders when Le Tour gets underway in July.
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
It was in the French daily L'Equipe Rob and other French newspapers like Le Monde (they also mentioned that the 'gazzetta dello sport' also reported inequalities within team sky). Basically it seems Richie Porte had his very own luxurious motor home during this giro and also enjoyed a helicopter flight transfer during the first rest day, something which was apparently not particularly popular (and rightly so) among his teammates. Following this there was speculation that perhaps Porte's teammates didn't do their utmost to help him during the puncture stage. one of these articles http://www.lemonde.fr/cyclisme/article/2015/05/25/cyclisme-nbsp-pour-richie-porte-le-camping-car-n-a-pas-suffi_4640224_1616656.html Fairly similar in English http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-ditalia-inside-richie-portes-motorhome
Rob Gremio
Roar Pro
I would love to see the reports about team tension - can you provide a link? Did Sky think Konig was the better option for the Giro?
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
Dunno rob. Maybe I have been influenced by what I read about tensions within Sky and that Porte was isolated (hence the puncture incident where no team mates helped him) but I think its more of a 'diplomatic' injury/withdrawal and an easy way out for both Porte and the team manager. If the injury was that bad I think he would have lost more time during the TT. The team strategy clearly didn't work.
Rob Gremio
Roar Pro
Such a shame. He was looking good in this race, but a bit of bad luck (puncture, crashes) has put him out of the race. NIck, I wonder whether he would have been any help at all to Konig with the injuries he was carrying. I mean, losing 27 minutes in one stage hardly suggests he would have been able to do much riding at the front, setting the pace, does it? I hope his body recovers in time for the TDF.
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
Injuries are clearly not the only reasons of the withdrawal. Quite disappointing actually. I would have liked Porte to reverse to a supporting role and help Konig get a top 3 finish.