Team Sky racer will 'fight all the way' for a Giro d'Italia victory

Richie Porte declared he is "ready to fight all the way to Milan" after a dreadful stage 10 of the Giro d'Italia, which left the Team Sky cyclist in 12th spot overall, over three minutes off the lead.

Porte suffered a puncture in his front tyre in the latter kilometres of Tuesday's 195km stage from Civitanova Marche to Forli but seemed to have earned a slice of luck when Orica-GreenEDGE's Simon Clarke - a fellow Australian - stopped and gave his compatriot his front wheel.

Clarke's charity meant Porte initially lost less than a minute to overall leader Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Astana's pink-jersey contender Fabio Aru.

But while Clarke and Orica-GreenEDGE team-mate Michael Matthews' decision to help Porte was hailed on social media - including by the Giro's official Twitter feed - the race officials deemed it "non-regulation assistance to a rider of another team".

Both Porte and Clarke were penalised two minutes, leaving the former with a significant time gap to make up over the final 11 stages of Italy's grand tour if he is to challenge for the pink jersey.

"Not the best of luck for me today but guess it could have been worse. Ready to fight all the way to Milan!" Porte wrote on Twitter after Tuesday's stage.

"Thanks to my @TeamSky teammates and @SimoClarke @blingmatthews for helping me to get going quickly #mates."

Clarke seemed to be feeling guilty after hearing about the penalty: "Feeling sad for @richie_porte. Tried to help a friend as most would. I'm sorry about the outcome of all this!"

Saturday's individual time trial (ITT), which Porte is expected to dominate, takes on even more significance now.

At 59km, it is a long ITT and Porte, who won this year's Paris-Nice due to a powerful time trial ride up Col d'Eze on the final stage, could take minutes off the likes of Aru and Contador on stage 14.

Whether that will be enough by the time the Giro finishes in Milan on May 31 remains to be seen.