The 30-year-old Launceston rider’s response to the two-minute penalty for accepting fellow Aussie Simon Clarke’s offer of a replacement wheel was that he would ‘‘have to suck it up’’ and battle on.

‘‘There are still two weeks to go. It has been a great Giro so far. There is still a lot of racing ahead, some tough stages and this has really fired the whole team up to try to get the time back.’’ he said.

‘‘As my mate and hero Shane Kelly said after his catastrophe in Atlanta ’96: if this is the worst thing to happen in my life then it’s not too bad. The battle continues.’’

Speaking for the first time since he and Clarke both received time and financial penalties for contravening a UCI ruling for ‘‘non-regulation assistance to a rider of another team’’ six kilometres from the end of the 10th stage into Forlì, Porte declared he can still be a threat on the road to Milan.

The Team Sky leader remains in 12th place after Wednesday’s 153-kilometre stage to Imola, three minutes and nine seconds behind leader and main rival Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo).

Porte said he picked up a front wheel puncture as he went left around a roundabout and his teammates went right. He initially considered riding on to the cut-off mark of 3km to go but feared it could endanger other riders.

‘‘I hit a manhole cover pretty hard and straight away could feel it was going flat,’’ he said.

‘‘It might have been OK with a straight run-in but with all those roundabouts you have to think about those guys behind you. I could have crashed and brought a heap of guys down.

‘‘I stopped, and by the time the guys had got back to me Simon had already stopped and offered me his wheel. It was a spur of the minute thing.

‘‘Alberto summed it up last night – all you are thinking about when something like that happens is ‘how can I make sure I lose the least time possible?’ I didn’t even give it a thought that it might be breaking the rules.’’

Responding to criticism that Porte’s Sky teammates should have provided more assistance, Clarke, of rival team Orica GreenEdge, told SBS: ‘‘He screamed to a teammate for support but at 60km/h it’s not always easy to hear your teammates.

‘‘I was right there, he needed help and I did what I thought was right. The last thing I was thinking about at the time was a ruling that might hinder him further.’’

Porte described his compatriot’s assistance as ‘‘really great sportsmanship’’.

‘‘For a fellow pro from another team to help out like that – I think it shows cycling at its best. The sport has made a lot of pretty bad headlines over the years and this was a pretty special moment. Simon is a friend and he showed it yesterday for sure.

‘‘It’s nice to have mates in the peloton. To see Simon Clarke and Michael Matthews double as my own teammates, that’s a nice gesture.’’

Despite overwhelming criticism from the cycling community, Porte was cautious about what to say about the UCI penalty.

‘‘It is frustrating but there is no point moaning or complaining. It was a technical infringement – although that was literally the last thing on my mind when it happened.

 ‘‘It’s pretty harsh really that Simon ended up with a two-minute penalty given he was left standing on the side of the road with just one wheel, but there you go.’’

‘Porte remains confident he can have a major impact on general classification in Saturday’s 59.4km individual time trial.