Richie Porte withdraws from Giro d'Italia due to injury

Team Sky's Richie Porte has quit the Giro d'Italia due to injuries sustained in a crash on stage 13.

The Australian hurt his hip and knee after being one of around 20 riders brought down in a high-speed pile-up in wet conditions.

He finished the stage two minutes down on the winner, and he then fell out of contention completely by losing another four minutes on stage 14's individual time trial on Saturday and 27 minutes on a mountainous 15th stage on Sunday.

The injury compounded a dreadful second week of the race for Porte, which had started with him being given a two-minute time penalty for an illegal wheel change following a puncture on stage 10.

Porte, who was 35min 57sec down in 27th overall, told teamsky.com: “The Giro has been my main goal this year and I have worked incredibly hard all season with this race in mind.

"I have had a lot of back luck this week with the puncture and the time penalty, but it was the crash on Friday that has taken its toll.

“I fell heavily on my knee and hip, which caused me a lot of pain on Saturday’s time trial and yesterday’s stage. I just wanted to keep trying and give it everything, but now the medical team have advised me not to continue."

Team Sky's focus will now switch to Leopold Konig, who lies fifth in the general classification, and Elia Viviani, who will be targeting the race's two remaining sprint stages.

Porte, meanwhile, will turn his attention to preparing to support Chris Froome at the Tour de France in July.

He added: “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. They have been outstanding every step of the way and to not be able to repay that is tough.

“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. Hopefully I can get myself ready for the Tour team.”

Monday is the Giro's second rest day, but the race will resume on Tuesday with a mountainous 177km 16th stage from Pinzolo to Aprica. Alberto Contador leads the race overall, 2min 35sec ahead of second-placed Fabio Aru.