Richie Porte – support role?
Richie Porte – support role?
Nine days in, Richie Porte was in a good position overall and looking relatively strong – continuing the fine form he showed in the early part of this season.
What followed, however, could come to define the Australian’s career as bad luck and injuries cost him dearly. Come the second rest day he was withdrawing from the race.
On form alone, Porte was the man to beat at the Giro d’Italia after a stunning start to the season which saw him at one point rise to the top of the WorldTour rankings.
But perhaps a Grand Tour is just a step too far?
Bad luck certainly played a part – puncturing so late on stage ten could not be accounted for, and to then caught in a crash again on stage 13 was equally unjust.
But that second crash also revealed a lot about the differences between Porte and Alberto Contador – the latter having frantically sourced a bike from a team-mate and set off in pursuit of the peloton while Porte hammered on his own equipment.
By the time he had switched bikes, he was out of it and with the effects of the crash hampering his time trial effort and climbing over the following weekend too, he had disappeared from view as far as the GC was concerned come rest day two.
The Aussie was subsequently pulled out, as Leopold Konig went on to claim sixth in his place, to get himself right to support Chris Froome at the Tour de France.
Porte’s support role will be vital for Froome’s chances as he joins the likes of Geraint Thomas and Nicolas Roche in protecting him in the mountains.
But is a support role all that Porte will be afforded in future, with Konig, Thomas and Froome after GC success and big-name new signings in the pipeline?
His form at the start of this year suggests he deserves another chance, but time is running out for him to prove himself and it may be already be too late as far as Team Sky is concerned.