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The European journos were convinced he wouldn’t last the pace – and they were right. Despite some promising signs in the past week, Richie Porte’s much debated fragility was exposed once again at the Tour de France.
It may have been the first Hors Category climb of the 101st Tour but it wasn’t the hardest climb of the race nor was it the steepest.
It was hot, but not ridiculously. However as the camera slowly panned across the faces of the lead group with just under 13 kilometres to ride, SBS’ Mike Tomalaris said that Porte was looking a little distressed.
No one was really attacking either, but metre by metre riders were dropping off on the steady incline.
Barely a couple of minutes later, Porte was losing touch. He was seen speaking to his team car on the radio.
The only teammate with Porte, Mikel Nieve, dropped back to help, but the gap to the front of the race was growing quickly.
As Vincenzo Nibali made his winning move with just less than seven kilometres to ride, Porte was more than three minutes down and his dream of a Paris podium was in tatters.
He eventually finished 8:48 behind the race leader and slumped from second on GC to 16th at 11.11.
Stage 13 was an unlucky one for the Tasmanian who went from riches to rags in a few mountainous kilometres.
So what happened?
Well Porte didn’t talk to the media straight away. He dismounted his bike at the team bus before emerging a few minutes later to sit on a warm down bike. It was good to see him smiling as he chatted with team officials but deep down he must have really been hurting.
Team Sky manager Dave Brailsford spoke first and was philosophical about what had just happened.
“That’s sport, isn’t it? You know, we’ve won a lot in this race and you have your good days and your bad days,” he said.
“You enjoy the good days and you’ve got to stay focused and keep on going on the bad days – and that’s what it’s all about.”
(TV reporter question): How was Richie going into today?
“Yeah, fine. We didn’t see that coming to be honest.”
Moments later Porte gave brief thoughts on why his day had ended so badly.
“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think I dealt with the heat real well but it’s one of those things. It’s a massive shame but we’ll just see what happens tomorrow.”
One reporter rather stupidly suggested that losing nine minutes wasn’t the worst thing that could’ve happened, but Porte took the question in good grace.
“It’s not the best either. It’s a shame. I feel more for my teammates who have been brilliant for me every day.”
Although he refused to give up hope of making some sort of recovery.
“If it happens to me it can to other guys too, so we just have to keep on pushing.”
And with that, Porte disappeared in the team bus, the hopes of nation that had been steadily building, melting quicker than the snow on the classic alpine peaks around Chamrousse.
The new, mature, consistent ready for Grand Tour stardom Richie Porte is still to emerge.
Maybe it doesn’t even exist.
Cadel Evans is one who remains uncertain.
Speaking to Fairfax Media ahead of Stage 13, the 2011 Tour de France winner voiced his own concerns about Porte’s Grand Tour frailties.
“Richie, physically, he’s certainly got the capabilities to do a great three weeks, as he’s shown in years gone by.
“My only fear with Ritchie is his history in three week races shows that he has one day that can cost him a lot of time.
“Everyone has a bad day in the Tour, but his bad day particularly last year at the Tour where he was well positioned, I think, going into the second week in the Pyrenees he lost eight minutes or something like that.
“You can’t afford to have that in the Tour de France when you’re playing for the podium,” Evans concluded
Enough said. Who said history never repeats.
Of course, it’s not all doom and gloom. Porte is only 29 so is in the peak years for a Grand Tour winner.
Remember, Cadel was 34 when he won the Tour.
And while it’s ok to say there’ll be other opportunities, there will arguably be none better than 2014.
Despite Vincenzo Nibali looking way too strong for everyone today, he was relatively isolated and dug very deep by attacking with 6.6kilometres to race.
His chase down of Leopold Konig and Rafal Majka was achieved in an instant and after staring down a challenge from Valverde, he soloed to his third stage win of the Tour.
By his own admission Nibali “suffered a lot today because of the heat”, but he wanted to put time into Richie Porte and Alejandro Valverde.
He more than achieved that, extending his lead over the nearest rider (Valverde) to 3:37.
On face value, Nibali looks to have this race in the bag, but the Tour is never that straightforward.
Nibali may pay a big price for going so deep today. Given what has happened over the past two weeks, it would be no surprise.
Richie Porte is not the only one hoping that happens.
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