Richie Porte keeps focus on Tour de France

Within hours of claiming a title he had sought since his first professional win in 2010, the Tasmanian was back in the saddle ploughing through ankle-deep snow to check out a stage he will next tackle in Le Tour on July 9.

“We spent five hours in the snow and rain that day so there was no time for celebration,” he said.

“Hopefully we can celebrate at the end of the year.”

Adding the traditional Tour lead-in to an impressive resumé already boasting such stage races as Paris-Nice (2013 and ’15), Volta ao Algarve (2012), Volta a Catalunya (2015), Giro del Trentino (2015) and this year’s Tour Down Under gives the 32-year-old plenty of confidence as he seeks to improve on last year’s fifth place in Paris.

“In the back of my mind I’m happy about Romandie but you don’t get much time to sit back, relax and enjoy what you’ve done,” Porte told The Examiner from his Monaco base this week.

“I really did not expect to win it. I was quite disappointed after Paris-Nice because I went into that thinking I had a really good chance to win. Although it did not work out I managed to salvage a stage win and then had a week off.

“In 2010 I won the Romandie time trial stage and that was my first big break in pro cycling so I always wanted to go back and win the race and to do it when I was not really expecting to feels great.”

Porte and his BMC teammates have more recons planned for the Pyrenean stages of the Tour followed by an altitude camp in the Alps before one more lead-in race at the Critérium du Dauphiné in France from June 4-11.

Le Tour follows in July and the former Hagley Farm and St Pat’s College student could not be happier with his preparation. 

“I’m really happy with where I’m at and when I look back on the stage races I have won but the Tour is the big one,” he said.

“The Tour is still two months away so I don’t know exactly who is going to be in the team but I’m really happy, especially with how the guys were around me in Romandie.

“Nicholas Roche (Ireland) came from Sky and is a good friend while [Danilo] Wyss and [Michael] Schar (both Swiss) and a few other guys all rode with Cadel [Evans] the year he won the Tour and really know what they’re doing.

“Greg Van Avermaet is smashing all the classics (Belgium’s Rio Olympic road race champion won Gent-Wevelgem and Paris-Roubaix this year) and will also do the Tour. The door is also open for Teejay [van Garderen] but it is such a hard Giro [d’Italia] so the team will see how he comes out of that.

“The team is in a really good position. I really feel it is so committed to helping me. We are gelling and winning races.” 

It is a fact not lost on Porte that from 2011-13 – through Evans, Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome – the winner of Romandie went on to add the Tour de France.

“If you look at guys who have won Romandie, a lot have gone on to win Grand Tours so it’s a nice thing to think about but does not change the hard work you have to do in the next couple of months.”