Richie Porte has become the first Australian to win cycling’s celebrated Paris-Nice race.
The Tasmanian produced a dominant victory on the final time trial stage on Sunday, while promising American rider Andrew Talansky showed his potential with a second-place overall finish.
Porte was in the leader’s yellow jersey overnight and only needed to protect his lead.
But he attacked from the start and dominated his rivals on the uphill time trial, finishing a massive 23 seconds ahead of Talansky.
The 28-year-old Porte posted a time of 19 minutes, 16 seconds over the 9.6-kilometres from Nice to Col d’Eze.
“I can’t believe it, the first Aussie to win such a big race,” said Porte.
“It’s just an honour to have my name up there with Bradley Wiggins, Tony Martin, all the big champions.”
Richie Porte during the individual time trial in the 2013 Paris-Nice (Image: AFP)
Porte follows in the footsteps of Sky teammate Wiggins, who won the race last year before going on to win the Tour de France.
But after coming relatively late into professional cycling, he ruled out any likelihood of becoming a main contender on the Tour later this year.
“I’m still doing my apprenticeship, I’m still learning from Bradley and Chris Froome, so I don’t expect to go to the Tour and ride for general classification,” he said.
“I’m in a good place at the moment and don’t really want to change anything. … Whatever happens we’re going to have a hell of a team for the Tour de France.”
Talansky was 32 seconds behind Porte overnight, but the Garmin-Sharp rider slipped further behind to finish 55 seconds adrift in the final standings.
French rider Jean-Christophe Peraud finished third overall, 1:21 behind, despite coming off his bike, and American Van Garderen was 1:44 back in fourth.
(with AFP)
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