From twitter Richie Porte - "last day of Romandie, cold, wet and hard stage. I'll be fighting as hard as I can for my 7th on GC. Wish me luck.. I'm gonna need it!"
And he did.
In a breakthrough performance Launceston's Richie Porte has placed 11th overall after the 6 stage Tour of Romandie in Switzerland. Recruited last year into arguably the world's biggest cycling outfit - Team Saxobank, Porte is being groomed for the big European Grand Tour's (The 3 Grand tours are the tours of France, Spain and Italy), the first of which begins this sunday - the Giro d Italia (May 8).
Porte will be the 3rd? 4th? Tasmanian behind Michael Wilson, Wes Sulzberger and Matt Goss(?) to ride a "Grand Tour".
This years Giro has 3 individual time trials and one team time trial. Team Saxobank will be looking to Porte and Olympic silver medallist Gustav Larsen to bring home a stage win. I'm not sure if a Tasmanian has ever won a stage in the Grand Tour's. With Portey's time trialling ability he looks to have a good a chance as any.
Quite an achievement for a boy from Hadspen. This week has been a massive week for Portey.
I firmly believe that if Richie stays injury free he will win a major European stage race in the next few years. He is already one of the best time triallers in the world and although comparitively lacking in experience in the big european mountains he is showing that he can climb with the best. The ability to time trial and climb well are the hallmarks of all the successful European riders.
See the link below for a report on Portey's Romandie campaign
http://www.team-saxobank.com/ny_news.asp?n_id=2760
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