Porter, who was at the back of the quartet for the opening kilometre, had his handlebars snap off during a pursuit that saw him fall to the floor at 65km/h.
Australia’s team were eager to restart their attempt, and officials granted the medal hopefuls a re-ride which took place 30 minutes later.
Despite suffering scratches and cuts to his face and knees, the 25-year-old was able to participate in his team’s second attempt as they narrowly missed out on a place in the finals with a time of 3:48.448.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist was left in tears after the ride, though head coach Simon Jones was more upbeat, instead praising Porter’s resilience.
“Obviously there was a mechanical failure,” Jones said. “We’re not too sure what happened exactly.
“Obviously there was something wrong with the bars.
“When you land on your face at 65km/h and you’ve got half an hour to do that again, that’s absolutely amazing.
"You talk about Australian fighting spirit, to get up and go again, I’m almost speechless to be honest.
“That’s all there is to say. We did a pretty good time considering we crashed at a quick pace, the lads were at a good pace.
“We’ve still got the bronze tomorrow, that’s the key thing.
“The lads will come back, recover, settle down and we’ll come back and go as quick as we can go.
“The doc checked him over and we don’t have any immediate concerns.
“He slid on his face. He’s not quite as pretty as he was before; he took a bit of skin off, took a bit of skin off his right arm, but he was lucky.
“Fortunately, on the track, you slide.”
In the end it was Denmark who qualified with the fastest time - the world champions breaking an Olympic record with a time of 3:45.014.
