Richie Porte has said that he is prepared to pass up the chance to ride the Santos Tour Down Under in order to boost his overall chances of a strong season. Although the 26 year old is Australian and has few chances to race on home soil, he’ll limit competing there to the national championships as he and his team have plotted a different course to peak fitness.
“Being an Aussie, you'd love to ride your home tour but I'll go and do a training camp,” he told the Adelaide Now Advertiser. “It will be good to meet my team-mates again and get to know them better. And training camps are where you get those good base miles in.”
Porte has worked hard in the off season and has lost seven kilos; weight was an issue at the beginning of last season, but it appears he is in a much better position now. Nationals aside, he won’t compete for some time yet, but has pinpointed a big target in March.
“I start racing in late February but the big one for me is Paris-Nice,” he explained. “It's a love-hate relationship with that race.
“It was the first big race I did as a pro and it's cold and horrible, but also last year I had some good stages there. It's one of the races that down the path I could ride for a good GC.”
Porte finished sixteenth on the Willunga stage of the 2011 Santos Tour Down Under and was 33rd overall; he rode the Tour du Haut Var to prepare for Paris-Nice and then rode solidly there. The then-Saxo Bank SunGard rider was third in the Aix en Provence time trial, finishing 29 seconds behind Tony Martin and just nine off the time of Bradley Wiggins, and placed 22nd overall in the race.
Big things were expected of Porte after a storming pro debut in 2010. Results such as seventh overall and best young rider in the Giro d’Italia [plus a stint in the race leader’s jersey], time trial success in the Tour de Romandie and fourth overall in the Eneco Tour, Tour of Britain and world championship time trial showed that the then-25 year old was a big new talent, but 2011 was quieter.
The reason was that he spent a lot of time supporting team leader Alberto Contador. He rode the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and other races in his services, sacrificing his own chances but also learning a lot. He saw a big winner close up and was able to take in the Spaniard’s physical and mental approach to racing, and this should stand to him when he is leading teams in the future.
That dedication to another aside, Porte still had chances to show his ability in time trials. Performances in solo tests in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco (8th), Vuelta a Castilla y Leon (2nd), Tour de Romandie (2nd), Giro d’Italia (4th), Tour de France (5th) and the Tour of Denmark (victory on stage 5) underlined his TT credentials. And while the flat, fast nature of the world championship time trial didn’t suit him as well as the previous year’s test in Australia, he went anyway and picked up a decent sixth place.
Porte’s ready for a new start with Sky Procycling in 2012, and should find himself with more chances. He’s prepared for the season training in Tasmania and Adelaide, and will test his legs in next week’s national championships.
“I need to be good for the time trial and also the road race,” he said. “Everyone's looking at GreenEdge - they could have 17 guys in the road race. But with Sky there are four of us, four good guys so maybe we'll punch above our weight a bit.
“It's exciting and as good as it is for Aussie cycling with GreenEdge coming in, they've got a lot of pressure on them.”
In terms of goals, Porte said that he’d like to ride the Olympics but admits that with Cadel Evans, Jack Bobridge and Michael Rogers also in the running, that his time trial participation is not guaranteed. The Tour de France looks like a more likely bet; for the second year running, he won’t have a chance to ride for himself there, but he’s prepared to go and to continue learning while also helping the team leader.
“If I go to the Tour de France it's obviously going to be for Bradley [Wiggins],” he said. “Most of my races are in the team that's going to be racing the Tour with Wiggins so there is emphasis put on me.
“They're paying me money to develop as a general classification rider so that's the goal for this year.”
Because he turned pro so late, he has time on his side in terms of development and the age when he likely peaks. He’s not under big pressure from Sky in 2012, but still wants to show well and to progress. Porte expects to have more responsibility, and plans to take advantage of that.
“I think I'm ready to step up,” he said.