Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike) won't start stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia after not fully recovering from his high-speed crash on stage 5.
The European Champion was drafted into the Giro as a replacement for Wout van Aert after his debut at the race was cancelled due to his horror crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen, but Laporte's first appearance has only lasted seven stages.
Visma-Lease a Bike announced the Frenchman would be a non-starter this morning, making him the second rider from their squad to pull out after Robert Gesink left the race after the opening stage with a broken hand.
"Unfortunately we have to report that Christophe Laporte will not start today," read a statement from the team on social media.
"He never fully recovered after his crash in stage 5. Together with the team, it was decided to take the necessary rest. Get well soon, champ."
He becomes the 12th rider to abandon this year's Giro d'Italia, leaving 164 riders to start stage 8.
Laporte went down hard on the fifth stage just after leading out sprinter Olav Kooij to an intermediate sprint point when he hit a drain and lost control of his bike.
He remounted after holding his leg in pain but with lots of bandaged-up road rash, struggled throughout the remainder of the day and on the following gravel stage and time trial yesterday.
Laporte was supposed to act as Kooij's last man in the sprint stages but the Dutch fast man only managed sixth and fourth on the flat days after getting boxed in on stage 3 and not being able to match Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) on stage 4 after strong Laporte lead out.
Without Laporte, Kooij will be left with a much less explosive train and likely forced to try and latch onto Tim Merlier's (Soudal-QuickStep) or Milan's wheel during the Giro's next sprint finish which could come tomorrow into Naples.
Laporte and Gesink's exit from the race leaves last year's Giro-winning team with only six riders, Kooij, Cian Uijtdebroeks, Tim van Dijke, Edoardo Affini, Jan Tratnik and Attila Valter.
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