Porte on a storm

Tasmanian racer Richie Porte is one of the nicest and most grounded riders in pro cycling, and dealing with him is always a pleasure. As he’s just taken a super podium finish in the Tour de France I thought it worth sharing an extract from a conversation i had with him just before the 2017 race, where he started as a pre race favourite, and ended up in hospital.

This is just a tiny insight into his early career, which was quite different to that of many of his Australian compatriots

ST – When you started out did you have any cycling history or knowledge of the sport behind you?

RP – No, not at all. My parents never pushed me with any sport, and my dad’s more into his surf and swimming. I think it’s nice that they never pushed me to do this.

I liked watching the Tour de France on TV, and that was about it really; it just went from there.

ST – How balanced was your early learning curve -from scratch when matched with your obvious physical ability?

RP – Tactically, that’s something you learn as you go. I never won a race in Australia, and then I went to Italy and won the first race I rode. 

It had a solid hilltop finish and I rode away from some of the best amateurs in Italy at the time. From there, well; I was a bit overweight and didn’t really understand the whole power to weight thing,  but it progressed.

In 2007 I won a race, and in every year I was in Italy I won a race, and was lucky that Bjarne Riis offered me a contract with Saxo Bank (2010).

ST – You pretty much made your way without the traditional AIS system of support. What was the story there?

RP – I don’t know really, honestly I don’t know what happened there. Maybe I came to it a little bit late, but at the end of the day I was going to races where they were and was quite often beating there guys. But I can’t complain about it as I got a ride with Saxo Bank, which was one of the biggest teams around.

Personally I think my struggle was as an amateur, whereas with most of the AIS guys I think their struggle is when they turn pro, with the whole mental thing.  But, I can’t begrudge that system at all. Behind the scenes Shane Bannen did a lot to help me; he was one of the guys trying to help me get a professional contract in 2009. 

At the end of the day I would have loved to of ridden with that system, but I didn’t and I rode with some great teams in Italy, and that’s just how it was.

ST – You had some early support from Andrea Taffi, how did that happen?

RP – I rode with his teams in Tuscany. He was at a race I won as an amateur, and he wanted to get me (on the team). The other thing was that I went to the Tour Down Under in 2008 and finished 9th (I think). It went from there, and I got a few teams interested.

ST – In your first pro season you took the opening TT and the young riders jersey in the Giro. That was a shocker for mainstream race followers. How much of a learning curve was that?

RP – It all kind of kicked off in the Tour of Romandie, where as a neo pro I won the TT there, ahead of Valverde, Mick Rogers and all those guys. Then came the rumours that I held on to a car, had a motor pace and all that sort of crap, so I had to deal with all of that from the start.

So when I did the Giro and took the prologue and too the pink jersey, having ridden in Italy, and the Giro being the biggest race in Italy, it was the most incredible three days. I still look back at it with fond memories. But now, later in my career, I think we took such long time gaps in that breakaway that I probably should have held on.  I got sick, and didn’t, but it was still an incredible start to my career.