Richie Porte is refusing to give up the fight for the Giro d'Italia, and has given us his own insight into what happened during the last 10 kilometres of the 10th stage into Forlì.

Porte received a two-minute time penalty and 200 Swiss Franc fine on Tuesday evening for contravening a UCI ruling for 'non-regulation assistance to a rider of another team'. The impact of that - in addition to the 47 second losses he incured on the road - means the Tasmanian now sits in 12th position on the general classification, three minutes and nine seconds behind race leader Alberto Contador.

Despite all that, Porte is determined to battle every step of the way in Team Sky's quest for the Maglia Rosa, and sat down with TeamSky.com as he prepared for the 11th day of action:

"The peloton was going super fast to try and catch the breakaway and get ready for a bunch sprint, and I picked up a front wheel puncture as we were going around a roundabout," he said. "I'd gone around it on the left but my team-mates went around the other side. I stopped, and by the time the guys had got back to me Simon (Clarke from Orica GreenEdge) had already stopped and offered me his wheel.

"It was a spur of the minute thing. Alberto (Contador) summed it up last night - all you are thinking about when something like that happens is 'how can I make sure I lose the least time possible'. I didn't even give it a thought that it might be breaking the rules. Everything was happening so quickly and I was just acting on adrenaline.

"It was amazing -  really great sportsmanship. For a fellow pro from another team to help out like that - I think it shows cycling at its best.  The sport has made a lot of pretty bad headlines over the years and this was a pretty special moment. Simon is a friend and he showed it yesterday for sure.

"I think I had better watch what I say... You might have had a different answer last night! Stating the obvious - it is frustrating but there is no point moaning or complaining. It was a technical infringement - although that was literally the last thing on my mind when it happened. As I said, all I wanted to do was to get to the finish line as fast as possible and limit my losses. It's pretty harsh really that Simon ended up with a two-minute penalty given he was left standing on the side of the road with just one wheel, but there you go.

"I have to suck it up and we have to look forward as a team. It has been great to get so much support overnight. That means a lot. No-one should doubt how much I still want to win this race. There are still two weeks to go. It has been a great Giro so far. There is still a lot of racing ahead, some tough stages and this has really fired the whole team up to try to get the time back."