NTT Pro Cycling's Domenico Pozzovivo abandoned the Tour de France after stage 9 in Larence on Sunday. He injured his elbow in a massive crash that occurred 3km from the finish in Nice in the opening week.

Pozzovivo, who was 45th overall and nearly 50 minutes behind new race leader Primoš Roglic (Jumbo Visma), says he is fully recovered and hopes to target the Giro d'Italia scheduled for October. 37-year-old has finished in the top 10 in the Giro five times since 2008, finishing fifth in both 2014 and 2018.

"I didn't want to leave the Tour without seeing if my body would recover during the race, but the daily pain was unbelievable," Pozzovivo said in a press release Sunday.

"Plus the risk of crashing again and causing even more damage.

"Now I want to focus on recovering as quickly as possible and then head to my next goal, hopefully the Giro d'Italia.

"I did my best and received incredible support from the team. Pozzovivo said, "I wish them the best for the rest of the race."

Teammate and compatriot Giacomo Nizzolo was also involved in the same crash in Nice and had to retire from the race on Saturday's stage 8.

"It's a real shame that Domenico had to retire," said Nizzolo. We were very optimistic that Domenico would be in the overall contention, but his crash on stage one robbed him of that opportunity."

"After watching him suffer so bravely day after day, we have now come to the conclusion that it is best for him to stop riding. We hope he will return home, focus on his recovery, and start preparing for the Giro d'Italia."

"It was very encouraging to see him recover from his big crash last year and prepare for the Tour de France.

Pozzovivo was hit by a car while training in Italy last August, breaking his arm and leg and initially feared his career was over, but he raced again at the Tour de la Provence in February and moved from Bahrain-Merida to NTT for the 2020 season. He moved to NTT from Bahrain-Merida for the 2020 season.