Morabito's brave Tour Down Under stand ends

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Steve Morabito was a DNS on stage 3 of the Santos Tour Down Under, with his FDJ team confirming that the rider’s dislocated shoulder from stage 2 proved too painful for the Swiss rider to continue.

Morabito crashed on stage 2 and dislocated his right shoulder in the fall. Despite medical advice that he should go directly to hospital, the rider popped his shoulder back into its socket and finished the stage. After the race he rode several more kilometres and vowed to fight on.

However, on Thursday morning FDJ's Jussi Veikkanen confirmed that after medical consultation the decision was made to pull Morabito from the race.

"We went to Steve's room after breakfast and saw him with the race doctor," Veikkanen told Cyclingnews.

"We also had our team doctor on the phone at the same time, but we could see that Steve had trouble putting on a t-shirt. He had pain in his shoulder so we made the decision for him not to start the stage. It's a pity.

"He did some riding after the stage, but the problem was that when his body cooled down, and he didn't really sleep during the night due to the pain, and that's where the trouble starts. This way he will heal quicker and he'll stay on here and train for a few extra days."

Morabito will take several days off the bike and enjoy Australia with his family – who have travelled to the race with him – before returning to training. Veikkanen added that further medical checks would only be scheduled if the pain failed to subside in the coming days.

"He's not had any exams yet. If it doesn't get any better in the next 48 hours then we'll take him in for more checks."