Saxo Bank's young talent, Richie Porte, continued his breakout Giro d'Italia with an excellent ride on the Monte Zoncolan in Sunday's fifteenth stage.
The young Aussie finished a credible 18th on the day, 5:46 in arrears of a reborn Ivan Basso, who looked nothing short of royal as he plowed to his first stage win at the Giro since 2006.
Porte's ride was enough to defend his second place overall, but he now finds himself in the sights of Ivan Basso, Carlos Sastre, Cadel Evans, and the rest of the Giro favorites. His lead on third placed, Ivan Basso, is now only 58 seconds.
Porte isn't looking to sit idly and wait for the chasers to come up on him from behind though. Saxo Bank sports director, Dan Frost, told feltet.dk that "Even before today's stage, Richie told me that if he got through the day well enough, he would look forward enormously to Tuesday's time trial."
"It shows that he really has the courage to take on the task. It shows that he is prepared to complete his fantastic first appearance at the Giro."
Frost feels that Porte can take home not only the best young rider's jersey, but a place in the top 10 as well. It would be a huge success for Richie Porte and his Saxo Bank team, which came to the Giro with a young, relatively inexperienced team. A stage win, a major jersey, and a top 10 overall would be nothing short of a huge success.
In the young rider classification, Porte has a commanding lead of 5:38 over Liquigas's Robert Kiserlovski and 12:00 over Rabobank's Bauke Mollema.