End of the road for Porte

Aussie rider reflects on disappointing Tour

RICHIE Porte concedes he and his team will need to “reevaluate things” after a disappointing Tour de France fell well below expectations.

Porte joined Trek-Segafredo at the end of last year and, with some long-overdue good fortune, was expected to challenge for a podium place.

But the Australian contender on Sunday night rolled into Paris in 11th and eager to get home to his young family. “It’s my ninth Tour de France now and I certainly won’t be doing another nine,” Porte said.

“Of course it’s disappointing, but I guess we need to reevaluate things and I guess that will all start from tomorrow.

“It’s not the position I was hired to finish in. I was hired to be at the pointy end, but I don’t think I really did that much wrong.”

Porte was put on the back foot as early as Stage 2 when Trek-Segafredo lost a chunk of time in the team time trial.

“At the end of the day there’s no excuse. We just weren’t fast enough,” he said.

Porte and his team were then caught out in the crosswinds of Stage 10.

“We weren’t there, which is not good enough,” he said.

His struggles on the Tourmalet on Stage 14 were compounded by a nightmare Stage 20 when he finished more than five minutes back.

“Look, it’s nice to arrive in Paris. I haven’t done that since 2016 when I was fifth,” Porte said.

“I’m not going to say that I’m totally devastated with how it’s gone, but it’s not exactly where I would have hoped to have been.

“The team seem disappointed, but a lot of the time I was by myself, too. It’s not been an easy Tour. It’s been enjoyable, we’ve had good spirit within the team.

“I did a good time trial, but had a bad day on the Tourmalet and then on Stage 20 I had a terrible day.

“Three weeks of hard racing, the heat, the toll of altitude — we always knew those last days were going to be ridiculously hard.

“You have good days and bad days and on Stage 20 I was on a bad day.”

But Porte said there was no reason he couldn’t return to contend next year.

“Why not? It would be nice to come back here and have a good race and nice memories,” he said. “It’s been a nice race this year, but it is disappointing, even to drop out of the top 10 on the last day. “The goal wasn’t to be top 10, but to finish 11th — to be honest, I’m looking forward to getting home and away from the whole bubble of pro cycling.”

In Tour winner Egan Bernal, Porte sees the “future of the sport”.

“The sky is the limit for him. He’s got a fantastic team around him,” Porte said.