Richie Porte continued his excellent 2020 form with a second-place finish in the one-day race up France's famed Mont Ventoux.
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The result means that of the five races he has finished this truncated season, the Launceston rider has recorded a first, second, third and sixth.
A field of 124 riders began the Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge and only Astana's Aleksandr Vlasov could hold off Porte's challenge.
The Trek-Segafredo rider finished the challenging 179km race just 18 seconds behind the Bulgarian with Frenchman Guillaume Martin nearly a minute behind in third.
Porte said it was another timely form check less than a month out from his 10th Tour de France on a day when the cycling world's focus was on Fabio Jakobsen, the Dutch champion recovering from a horrific high-speed crash in Tour of Poland.
"Good day on the giant of Provence," Porte said on Instagram. "Great team work from @treksegafredo. It's fair to say @fabiojakobsen was on all of our minds today, keep fighting mate."
The result came just two days after Porte finished sixth in La Route d'Occitanie. Before the COVID-19 break, he won the Tour Down Under and came third in the Tour du Haut Var.
He will maintain his French assignments by backing up in the three-stage Tour de l'Ain followed by the Critérium du Dauphiné from Wednesday with Le Tour scheduled to start on August 29.
Rob Shaw
Heralding the impact of Tasmanian sport without saying "punching above its weight" is not as easy as it sounds.
Heralding the impact of Tasmanian sport without saying "punching above its weight" is not as easy as it sounds.
