Alps may be Richie’s last chance for glory

WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2019 themercury.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS 1300 696 397 HE’S not even in the top 10, but Tasmanian Richie Porte can still equal his best Tour de France result by finishing in the top five in Paris on Sunday.

Sure, Porte is not having his best TDF. But he came into the event with an interrupted preparation, having battled bronchitis soon after the Tour Down Under, which forced him to miss the Paris-Nice, a race he has won twice.

He rode the Tour of California and attended a training camp in Utah in May.

Most importantly, Porte rounded out his TDF preparation by training on Tour stages in the French Alps, which they face tomorrow, Friday and Saturday.

Porte got caught in someone else’s crash early in week two of the three-week event, leaving him limping and slightly concussed.

As well as a gun time trial rider, Porte is a known climber and the Embrun to Valloire, Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Tignes, and Albertville to Val Thorens stages are his opportunity to move up the charts.

Those three stages alone account for 464km in distance and an eye-watering 13,592m in elevation, including five HC climbs — HC being TDF code for hors category (meaning beyond categorisation, or standing for “holy crap” to the rest of us average humans).

Porte was 19th on Saturday and is now 11th as the Tour rolls out two stages for the sprinters, one of which was overnight and another tonight.

The top five is made up of France’s newest cycling hero Julian Alaphilippe, followed by Britain’s defending champion Geraint Thomas, who is 1min 35sec back in second, flying Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk (1:47), Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (1:50) and 22-year-old Colombian Egan Bernal (2:02).

Just to get a look at those guys, Porte must jump sixthplaced German Emanuel Buchmann (2:14), Spaniards Mikel Landa (4:54) and Alejandro Valverde (5min), Denmark’s Jakob Fuglsang (5:27) and Colombian Rigoberto Uran (5:33).

“I know it’s going to be a hell of a fight,” Porte said on his team website. “In a lot of ways I feel a lot less pressure than in past years and am very motivated to fight hard.”