Of Australia’s two stage race winners this season – Simon Gerrans and Richie Porte – the latter arguably has the most going for him in 2012.
Gerrans, amid much fanfare as Australian national team GreenEDGE made its competitive debut, won last month’s Tour Down Under in Adelaide while Porte, making his own debut for British team Sky Procycling, won the five-day Volta ao Algarve on Sunday.
It was the Tasmanian’s first win in new colours since joining Sky from Saxo Bank in the close season. In taking the overall crown in Portugal, Porte also did something his countryman Gerrans failed to do in Adelaide: win a stage.
Twenty-seven-year-old Porte is just the kind of guy GreenEDGE are lacking: an all-round talent who can time trial as strong as he can climb. He’s a general classification rider who has proved instantly with his new team that he’s capable of winning big races on the continent.
God only knows what GreenEDGE are going to do when the races get rather challenging…
Porte’s breakthrough performance in the 2010 Giro d’Italia – in which he wore the race’s fabled pink jersey on the way to taking seventh place overall – is already a better result than any current rider at GreenEDGE could realistically target in a Grand Tour.
There was talk – unsurprisingly – of Porte joining his compatriots after last year’s disappointing second season at Saxo Bank. The Tasmanian spent most of that season supporting the team’s top star Alberto Contador, who subsequently had all his results annulled over a failed dope test).
Joining GreenEDGE would have been as understandable as Gerrans’s decision to make his own switch from Sky, or indeed Mark Cavendish’s inevitable decision to join the same British team.
But Porte – perhaps quite rightly – opted to join an outfit in which he could continue his progression as a rider rather than be thrust into the deep end, carrying the hopes of his home nation (but without any discernibly strong domestic rides in support).
It’s easy to forget that Porte has only been a professional since 2010; prior to that he was a triathlete who made the step across to a second-tier Tasmanian pro-continental cycling team.
That seventh place in his debut Grand Tour might have been a remarkable introduction to the sport, but as Porte himself has stated on numerous occasions it also came down to a hefty slice of luck. At the time, the unknown Porte was the best-placed rider in a large break which crossed the line 13 minutes ahead of the main GreenEDGE contenders in stage 11.
“The Sky package was probably the best place for me at this point in my career,” said Porte when quizzed by reporters about his decision to join the likes of Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Cavendish over GreenEDGE.
Of course, the salary package also offered Porte a better place for him at this point of his career. Finances aside though, Porte’s early win already seems to have vindicated his move.
“It’s a nice way to start my time with a new team,” he understated. “They have been amazing all week and we have worked really well as a unit.”
It was indeed a stellar week for Sky: Edvald Boasson-Hagen won the stage two bunch sprint; Porte took the mountainous stage three; Wiggins the final time trial ahead of specialist Tony Martin of Omega Pharma-Quick Step; while Porte’s third place against the clock was enough to secure the overall win.
It must have been a breath of fresh air for Porte to see the likes of Froome and Wiggins (second and third respectively in last year’s Vuelta a Espana) ride for him in Portugal, something he would never have experienced at Saxo Bank with Contador.
The irony is that – now that the Spaniard is banned until August – had Porte stayed a little longer at Saxo he would have been Bjarne Riis’s top dog.
But perhaps that added pressure would have been too much; after all, Porte forewent the chance to join GreenEDGE precisely for that reason.
Given Cadel Evans won his first Grand Tour at the ripe old age of 34, the 27-year-old Porte has ample time on his side.
Continuing to nurture his talent at a proven, established team that has a reputation of bringing out the best in its riders is surely the best option for Porte.
And for now, things are working out just fine.
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