Cycling can be an extremely dangerous sport, and unfortunately there was another sickening fall during stage nine of the Tour de France.

Richie Porte, one of the favourites to win the race, epitomised the danger that cycling can possess when he crashed out during a descent.

With roughly 21km to go, the Australian made a huge mistake as he failed to navigate his way round one of the downhill bends.

He came off the road and crashed into the bank on the left hand side, before flying off his handlebars and into the path of another rider, Dan Martin.

Barring a few cuts and scratches, it seemed that Martin would survive the incident pretty much unscathed, and he went on to finish the race in a credible 9th place.

Unfortunately, Porte did not recover from the crash and after being treated on the track for some considerable time, he was then seen being lifted into an ambulance on a stretcher.

There has since been no other word on Porte's condition. Everyone at GiveMeSport wishes the Australian all the best in his recovery from this brutal crash.

Watch: Richie Porte's horrific crash

This was not the only incident during the race as Team Sky's Geraint Thomas was forced to withdraw from the Tour de France following a heavy fall.

The Brit was second overall going into Sunday's stage, but a suspected broken collarbone has ended his hopes of becoming the Tour de France champion.

The race would eventually be won by Rigoberto Uran of Colombia, with Warren Barguil of France in second and Britain's Chris Froome in third.

Froome now extends his advantage at the top of the general classification to 18 seconds, meaning he is in pole position to win the yellow jersey for the fourth time.

If the Briton were to win this year's Tour de France, this would be the third time in a row that he would conquer cycling's toughest test, having won overall in both 2015 and 2016.