Richie Porte's wretched luck has struck again, forcing the Australian cycling star out of the world road championships.
Porte has withdrawn from the Australian team because of a respiratory bug he picked up last week near the end of the Vuelta a Espana.
The Tasmanian was using the three-week Vuelta as his main preparation for the elite men's road race on Sunday week at Innsbruck, Austria.
The hilly circuit suited Porte's strengths and he would have been one of the favourites.
Porte was the No.1 rider for the Australian men's team.
He had made the worlds his late-season focus after crashing out of the Tour de France in July with a broken collarbone.
"I'm really disappointed to miss the road race," Porte said in a Cycling Australia statement.
"It was a big goal for me at the end of the season.
"However, recent illness means my preparation has been far from ideal and for a race of this difficulty, with more than 4600m of climbing, you need to have the best preparation possible to be up there.
"Within the Cycling Australia team we have decided that it is in the team's best interests if my place goes to someone else."
Porte's Tour crash and now the illness are particularly galling, given he had shown such strong form in the first half of the season.
But he cannot take a trick when it comes to big races.
Porte suffered a shoulder fracture two years ago when he crashed near the end of the Rio Olympics road race.
He suffered serious injuries in an horrific high-speed crash on stage nine of last year's Tour de France and also broke his collarbone in stage nine this year.
BMC team doctor Max Testa said Porte would resume training next week and will race again this season, but it made no sense for him to start at the world championships.
CA said the national team is "considering its options" in terms of replacing Porte.
"No one is more disappointed than Richie, and he knows he won't be able to perform to his high expectations," said CA performance director Simon Jones.
"The team has worked really hard behind the scenes to pull the game plan together.
"We will regroup and refocus during the week ahead."
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