PORTE’S READY FOR WORLD TITLES ASSAULT

WITHIN days of watching his Tour de France dream evaporate with a cruel mid-race crash, Richie Porte sent a message to Australian cycling selectors telling them he wanted in on this year’s world championships.

Porte was at home in Monaco with a broken collarbone and planning how to salvage the second half of his season when he decided on racing the Vuelta a Espana, which starts on August 25, and the climberfriendly world championships in Austria in September.

Cycling Australia yesterday announced its team for the world titles and confirmed Porte, pictured left, would lead the men’s road race and Amanda Spratt would lead the women’s medal hopes.

“He’s coming back from a big disappointment but sometimes you’ve got to lose big to win big and Richie has had a few knocks but he’s still hungry,” CA high performance manager Simon Jones said.

“He texted us a couple of days after the Tour and said he was up for the worlds. We let him recover a little bit and he will build his form, it’s certainly a climber’s course and he’s back in training.”

Porte will be supported by a team of hungry young climbers, including Jack Haig, Damien Howson, Robert Power and Chris Hamilton and also have the experienced heads of Simon Clarke, Rohan Dennis and Rory Sutherland alongside him.

“It’s a really tough course this year and I think we’ve picked a team that will give us the best chance,” Jones said.

Spratt heads the women’s team after a brilliant season has seen her win the mountains jersey and a stage at the women’s Giro d’Italia, a Swiss one-day race and go top five at Amstel Gold, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and La Fleche Wallonne.