Richie Porte is out of Olympic time-trial after breaking his shoulder
Richie Porte is out of Wednesday’s Olympic time-trial event after breaking his shoulder in a crash during Saturday’s road race.
Porte came down heavily on a tricky bend on a fast descent during the 237.5km race won by his BMC team-mate Greg Van Avermaet. He was due to ride in the time-trial on Wednesday but was diagnosed with a fractured shoulder blade after being taken to hospital in Rio.
“I’m definitely out of the time trial,” said Porte after being released from the Vitoria Hospital in the Barra neighbourhood. “I won’t be able to ride for at least 10 days, my arm’s in a sling and I can’t really move my arm. It’s just so disappointing to not be able to do the time-trial.”
Porte came down 35km from the finish of the race on a corner that also saw then leaders, Italian favourite Vincenzo Nibali and Colombian Sergio Henao crash.
“We were away with a small group on the descent and on one of the corners I came around and there was a guy on the road who crashed and I had nowhere to go,” said Porte.
“It was fortunate a tree stopped me from going over the side. I’m bruised and battered and sore and I’m disappointed but lucky I’m not worse off.”
After the race, Porte had tweeted jokingly alongside a picture of him sitting in the safety netting on the side of the road: “So that’s how my day went, me vs a tree. Not really sure who came off better #treehugger.”
