Australian Tour de France hope Ben O’Connor has pulled out of the prestigious cycling race due to a painful crash injury.

O’Connor, who was fourth overall in the Tour de France last year, sustained an injury to his buttocks when he crashed in the second stage in Denmark.

“Ben O’Connor will not start the tenth stage of the Tour de France on Tuesday,” his AG2R-Citroen team said in a statement early on Tuesday Australian time.

“Since his crash, Ben has suffered. The vibrations during the cobblestone stage did not facilitate his recovery and his second crash on Saturday during the eighth stage further aggravated the pain,” Dr. Serge Niamke, doctor for the team said.

O’Connor was upset about the decision to withdraw but had been battling the right gluteus medius injury to no avail, and could not continue.

“I have been fighting this glute injury for a couple of days, but it got even worse yesterday,” he said in the team statement.

“I think it was the stage to Lausanne. I pulled my glute muscle so I am more or less riding with one leg. These very chronic sharp pains that I get make it pretty impossible for me to continue the race.”

“I’m obviously upset. It’s the Tour de France, it’s the biggest race of the year. It’s the race that we all aim for, it’s the one that we prepare all year, and we clearly came here with big objectives.”

O’Connor will now take time to recover and take part in the Tour of Spain from August 19 to September 11.

“It was always on my calendar and I hope there I can fulfill the role that I dreamt of here at the Tour de France, but actually this time in La Vuelta,” he said.

Jack Haig, another Australian hopeful, was also forced out of the Tour due to injury. The Team Bahrain Victorious rider was injured on stage five of the Tour in a crash 30 kilometres before the finish.

By Liza Kappelle in Morzine, with Reuters

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