Training in his beloved Tasmania with Paris permanently on his horizon, Richie Porte draws his Tour de France inspiration from a compatriot and former teammate.

“Cadel was 34 when he won, Wiggins was 32, so this is the peak time for me when I have to perform,” he said.

Porte remembers a lot more about those two victories than just the winner’s age.

In 2011 he was making his debut in the planet’s largest annual sporting event, supporting two-time champion and Saxo-Bank team leader Alberto Contador, when Cadel Evans became the first Australian winner in the BMC colours Porte now wears.

A year later, when Bradley Wiggins became the first British winner, Porte was among his loyal Team Sky support staff, repeating the feat for another Brit, Chris Froome, in 2013 and ’15.

Then came the boldest step of his career, and after an unsuccessful shared role in his debut season with BMC, Porte is primed for the responsibility of outright leadership when this year’s tour begins on July 1.

“I know I’m a genuine contender and without bad luck I can be on the podium,” he said.

“At the end of the day I’m just a kid from Tassie riding a bike who used to watch the Tour de France riders and now to be one of them over there doing it is amazing and a real privilege to be in that situation.”

The Launceston rider’s misfortune in a much-anticipated 2016 is well documented, from his untimely puncture and collision with a media motorbike at the Tour to the high-speed Olympic crash that broke his scapula and ended his season.

But for those incidents he could well have made the podium in both Paris and Rio, a fact that continues to drive him this season.

“Sitting here in Launceston it still hurts that I lost two minutes to a puncture. If you gave me a tube and a set of tools I could have fixed it myself in that time so to throw away a podium on that is still a bitter pill to swallow.

“With Rio I actually think I was fortunate that I did not injure myself worse. I hit a tree which stopped me from going down an embankment so in some ways I was fortunate.

“It just summed up my year. Whatever could go wrong did. It’s just one of those sports where so much can go wrong.”

Porte is sufficiently philosophical about his bad luck to be wearing a T-shirt declaring him a member of the “Mont Ventoux Running Club” - a reference to the bizarre crash that left Froome jogging up the infamous French peak without a bike.

In contrast to those high-pressure days picking his way through thousands of inebriated hysterical fans, the former Hagley Farm and St Patrick’s College student is loving the loneliness on a far less stressful climb.

“Since I resumed training I’ve done 12,000 kilometres in three and a half months and in six weeks I’ve been back in Tassie I’ve been around Scottsdale 30 times and still keep heading for the Sideling.

“I love that ride. It’s just nice to ride somewhere so quiet and still have benchmarks to try and meet.

“There is no mental strain riding over the Sideling whereas in Europe it feels more like a job to ride.”

Porte said he put on eight or nine kilograms while rehabilitating from his Rio crash.

He wasted no time losing it and has returned to racing in emphatic style, finally claiming his much sought-after maiden Tour Down Under title with wins on both its hilltop finishes and following up with a bold late solo bid for victory in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

After a few more Scottsdale circuits he will head back to Europe next week for a race in Provence before another not far from his Monaco home when he attempts to win Paris-Nice for a third time.

“It’s still the biggest race I’ve won so feels like my home event. It finishes so close to Monaco and one of the stages goes within five kilometres of home.”

With results on the board putting him firmly atop the UCI WorldTour rankings, Porte has a greater say in his training program, race schedule and support team.

He is delighted that BMC have lured the experience of  two-time Giro stage-winner Francisco Ventoso from Nairo Quintana’s Movistar team and two-time Vuelta stage-winner Nicolas Roche from Sky to a squad already featuring Olympic champions Sammy Sanchez and Greg Van Avermaet and Porte’s perennial Australian time trial adversary Rohan Dennis.

He is also looking forward to continuing training from home.

“The team know if I’m home I train better than at camps.

“The weather’s better so it makes sense to stay there at the base of the Alps. I’ve got everything I need there and the team even send mechanics down which is great.

“If you are winning races and doing well you get a lot more say in what you do so I have more input in what’s going to work for me and the team has been awesome in supporting me in that.

“Compared to last year when we were splitting the Tour de France team between me and Teejay [van Garderen] and Greg, it’s a totally different feel and much more relaxed.

“There’s much less stress having a bunch of guys around you in the lead-up races who know where to position you and looking back at Tour Down Under, the guys dropped me in the perfect positions on Paracombe and Willunga.”

With his Tour Down Under win doing almost as much for his Australian profile as last year’s Tour de France fifth place, Porte is savouring his sport’s growing profile in his home country.

“Cycling is becoming a lot more mainstream here,” he said. “There were 120,000 on Willunga and you only have to be in Launceston on a Saturday morning to see the amount of people on bikes.”