Illness forces Porte out of Volta a Catalunya
Tasmanian Sky rider withdraws from second consecutive race with undisclosed illness
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Richie Porte abandoned the Volta a Catalunya Tuesday due to illness. The Tasmanian, who is set to lead Sky at the Giro d’Italia in May, is still dealing with the undisclosed illness that knocked him out of Tirreno-Adriatico earlier this month.
“I’m obviously not 100 percent. After my illness at Tirreno I went home and just haven’t quite been able to get over it,” he said via the team’s website. “Training is one thing, but when you come to the race there’s nowhere to hide. Unfortunately, today I had to stop, but I think long-term I’ll be able to go back, get healthy, recover, and re-start my season.”
Sitting fourth overall, Porte withdrew from the Italian stage race before the fifth stage.
“Unfortunately due to illness which occurred overnight it’s been decided that Richie is too unwell to start the race this morning,” team doctor Alan Farrell said at the time. “We expect him to recover quickly and hope to have him back in training within the next 48 hours.”
On Tuesday Porte abandoned Catalunya in the middle of stage 2. The peloton faced poor weather conditions on the ride into Girona, Spain, with cold temperatures and rain greeting riders as they worked north toward Wednesday’s first mountain stage.
The Volta a Catalunya continues Wednesday with the 162km third stage, from Banyoles to La Molina.