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Porte now leading Sky at Tour

Roar Guru
10th July, 2014
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Richie Porte’s original plan for the year was to step up and lead a Grand Tour team – but just not like this.

Porte is now the main man for Team Sky in the Tour de France after his good friend and defending champion Chris Froome crashed out of the race.

While Wednesday’s fifth stage from Ypres to Arenberg du Porte Hainaut was disastrous for Froome and the team, Porte rode well over the cobbles and is in the hunt at eighth overall behind Italian leader Vincenzo Nibali.

Porte came into 2014 planning to lead Sky in May at the Giro d’Italia and see if he could finish on the podium of the three-week race.

But once illness wrecked that campaign, he turned his attention to being Froome’s main lieutenant at the Tour.

Porte provided crucial support for Brad Wiggins when he won two years ago and was even more prominent last year as Froome’s No.1 domestique.

Before the Tour started, Porte also said if race tactics played out to his advantage he would try to achieve some personal results in the third week.

Now the Tasmanian is in the spotlight.

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“They (the team) have shown they are ready to get behind Richie, who’s in excellent form, and I would like to wish everyone all the best,” Froome said on the team website.

Team Sky manager Dave Brailsford said he was devastated to lose Froome, but that Porte was very capable of taking over.

“In Richie Porte, he’s come into this team, we’ve selected him to be the number two; he had great ability today and great courage with Geraint (Thomas) to ride the cobbles the way he did and given the way it’s timed at the minute, we’ve got an exciting couple of weeks to come,” Brailsford said.

Froome entered Wednesday’s rain-soaked fifth stage from Ypres to Arenberg Porte de Hinaut wearing a splint on his wrist after a fall the previous day.

The British rider was able to continue after crashing again 40 minutes into Wednesday’s stage, but a third crash an hour later sent him into the team car.

Froome withdrew before the treacherous cobbled sections that punctuated the stage.

He said the wet conditions and his wrist injury made bike handling near-impossible.

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As Dutchman Lars Boom won the stage and Italian Vincenzo Nibali took control of the race with his third placing, Porte also rode well to take 20th on the stage.

The Tasmanian finished 2 minutes 11 seconds behind Boom and is now eighth overall, 1:54 behind Nibali.

In a post on Twitter, Porte expressed his disappointment at losing Froome.

“Going to miss having @chrisfroome around for this TdF but sure he’ll be back next year stronger than ever #lionheart,” he said.

Froome’s withdrawl also puts the focus back on the controversial decision by Sky team management not to select Wiggins in the Tour team.

Speaking through his agent, Wiggins told The Guardian that he was confident Froome would bounce back from the setback.

“It’s a tough day – I never like to see a great racer go down, but Chris will be back,” Wiggins said.

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“Today has showed how hard it is to win the Tour de France, but the team will have prepared for this and they’ll deal with it.”

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