German cycling federation (BDR) sporting director, Patrick Moster has been forced to apologize after his racist comments were caught on camera during the men's Olympic road time trial Wednesday.

"Get the camel drivers, get the camel drivers, come on," said the German official said as he urged his rider Nikias Arndt, who was chasing opponents Algeria's Azzedine Lagab and Eritrea's Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier during his time trial effort.

On German television, ARD commentator Florian Nass was left stunned, describing the comments as "totally wrong."

"Words fail me," he added. "Something like that has no place in sport."

Moster has since apologized for his comments, which he said were made in the "heat of the moment."

"I was in the feed zone and cheered on Nikias Arndt," he told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)

"In the heat of the moment and with the overall burden that we have here at the moment, my choice of words was not appropriate."

"I am extremely sorry and can only offer my sincere apologies. I didn't want to offend anyone."

Arndt finished the time trial in 19th place, 3 minutes and 45 seconds behind Slovenia's gold medallist Primoz Roglic.