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Unfortunately for Australian cycling fans, the prophetic words uttered by Cadel Evans on the eve of Stage 13 became reality when Team Sky’s Tasmanian import, Richie Porte, tumbled from leadership contention to the depths of the also-rans.
Full of praise for the hard working Porte, Evans, who was briefly back on home soil to launch a new one day race that will carry his name, offered only one small caution to Porte’s legion of fans.
“History has shown that he (Porte) has one day that can cost him a lot of time… If he can avoid that day he’s going to be well positioned at least for the podium.”
Disappointingly, that bad day occurred on Friday as the Tour attacked the Alps for the first time.
While Australians watched from their darkened lounge rooms, many rugged up against the bitter cold of what has been a horrid winter, Porte and his fellow riders were battling it out in stifling temperatures of well over 30 degrees Celsius.
“I don’t think I dealt with the heat real well but it is one of those things,” said Porte after the stage.
The affable Tasmanian cracked with 12 kilometres to go on the final climb of the day, the hors category Chamrousse, losing all but the slimmest of hopes for regaining a podium position.
Porte lost over eight minutes to rampaging race leader Vincenzo Nibali who eventually won the stage, and slid down to 16th on general classification, some 11 minutes behind the number one spot.
The fade out scuttled Team Sky’s plan for a third year of domination at the Tour.
Porte will no doubt battle the race out to the end and will be looking to show his strengths as the race heads further into the high mountains, but a search through the history books shows that it will be virtually impossible to make up such a deficit.
Even a doped up Floyd Landis could ‘only’ manage to make up around seven and a half minutes with his infamous solo ride on Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour. He had plunged to 11th position the day before, imploding in the mountains and losing the yellow jersey in the process.
His fight back, which was amazing to watch (at the time), didn’t regain him the lead, but it put him to within 30 seconds of new leader Oscar Pereiro, and the race was back on.
Of course, we all know how that edition ended in tears. Landis stood on the top of the podium in Paris, but the race was eventually awarded to Pereiro.
Another big time grab came from Fausto Coppi during the 1952 Tour. He gained over seven minutes on a stage that took in the Croix de Fer and the Galibier before ending with a mountain top finish at Sestriere.
There was little pressure on the Italian legend though, as he already led the Tour and would become the run-away victor by over 28 minutes!
But perhaps the comeback to beat all comebacks came from Charly Gaul in the 1958 Tour. He entered Stage 21, the final day in the Alps, some 16 minutes behind race leader Raphael Geminiani.
It was a wet and miserable day with five major ascents, but it was also to become the day that earned Gaul the highly complimentary nickname of the ‘Angel of the Mountains’.
He attacked and won the stage by almost eight minutes, but more importantly he made up over fourteen and a half minutes on Geminiani, which rocketed him back up to third on general classification.
He went on to take an unlikely Tour victory a few days later off the back of his strong time trialling ability.
Richie Porte, as talented as he is, is no Fausto Coppi or Charly Gaul. He can take solace in the fact that he is both a decent climber and time trialler, and that time can be made up in both disciplines, but dreams of standing on the podium in Paris are well and truly gone.
Stranger things have happened of course, but the best he can realistically hope for now is to creep back into the top ten.
If he can do that then he can be well satisfied.
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