Richie Porte has suffered more bad luck than anyone else this Giro and he eventually was forced to retire from the event with injuries in his knee and hip. But things were going wrong from the week before, when he punctured 5km from the line on stage ten before being docked two minutes for taking a rider from another team’s wheel. He then crashed again on stage 13, ending his hopes of winning his first Grand Tour.

“I guess that’s cycling. It’s a cruel sport. Instead of fighting into the final week, I’m on my way home,” Porte told Cyclingnews before leaving the Giro d’Italia, accepting to talk one last time despite his huge disappointment.

“It’s a strange thing mentally, to be so motivated for this race, to have come into it in great form and suddenly to find myself about to head home. I guess I’ll have to ride my bike in the not too distant future but it’s a hard one.”

Porte said he was in pain for the whole of stage 15, which rode over the brutal Passo Daone before ascending to Madonna di Campiglio. He retired during the following rest day.

“When you crash it depends on how your body comes out of it. My knee is not so good and my hip too. I knew that as soon as I had to get on Kiryienka’s bike in Jesolo. I couldn’t warm down after that stage and had a terrible time trial the day after,” he said.

“It’s easy to sit there in front of the TV or the computer and criticise us riders,” he told Cyclingnews. “Maybe it doesn’t look hard but when you’re out there on stages like yesterday (to Madonna di Campiglio) it’s different. I can’t say how much pain I was in. It’s part of the sport. I’m not the first one to have bad luck in this Giro and I probably won’t be the last one. But that doesn’t make it any easier.”
 

“My luck definitely ran out and I’m on my way home. I knew that when I had the crash, it’s part of cycling. A foot to the right and I would have been fine. When Alberto crashed and hurt his shoulder (on stage 6) I was one of the last riders to get through and avoid that.”