How good is Porte? he is cool to start with!

[theyoungest]

People are making too much of the 12 minute breakaway. He finishes 9th or 10th even without it.

Maybe, but the hype would have been considerably smaller, as he wouldn't have worn the white jersey (let alone the pink).

 

[Christian]

He seems like a very good time-trialer and put in an amazing performance this Giro. I think it was rather exceptional in a way that he went beyond what would normally be possible for him, much like Voeckler when he held the Maillot Jaune for a week. He also seems like a genuinely nice guy!

Plus I think no one has mentioned that he became the leader of his team, so he had guys like C.A. Sorensen and Gustav Larsson working for him in the mountains. The white jersey and the top-10 is a team effort, everybody contributed to help Porte as much as they could, so that he could be as fresh as possible towards the end of the stages. I think that's the whole difference to Kiserlovski - he didn't have a team working for him, he had to work for others.

Anyways great success though by a young Saxo squad, I think no one expected them to do so well!

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

Without the break he loses the white jersey to Mollema by 5 seconds.

I think that Porte is in danger of suffering the same kind of ridiculous hyping by the english language media that Danielson, McGee have had over the years. A decent TTer but the truth is that when the pace went up in the mountains Porte went out the back.

Rather than over-hype him it would be better to let him be the rider that he is. If the course favours him then he might get a decent result and he might luck into a top 5 place in a GT like Wiggins did.

 

[jaylew]

Maybe, but the hype would have been considerably smaller, as he wouldn't have worn the white jersey (let alone the pink).

He still would have been in the white jersey after that stage just as he had been before the stage.

 

[jaylew]

Without the break he loses the white jersey to Mollema by 5 seconds.

I doubt it. There's no telling how things would have gone if the race for the white jersey had been close. As an example, you think he he gives up every one of those seconds to Mollema in stage 20 if he only has a small amount of time on him rather than 12+ minutes? Absolutely no way to know how the race would have gone under completely different circumstances.

 

[Potomac]

Porte could be a very strong domestique for the next 10 years. I think the serious GC contenders would be lucky to have him working for them.

 

[ericthesportsman6]

Porte could be a very strong domestique for the next 10 years. I think the serious GC contenders would be lucky to have him working for them.

Agreed. He's the kind of rider who can be a strong domestique and consistently finish around the top 20 in GT's. But I don't ever seen him being a serious contender.

 

[theyoungest]

I doubt it. There's no telling how things would have gone if the race for the white jersey had been close. As an example, you think he he gives up every one of those seconds to Mollema in stage 20 if he only has a small amount of time on him rather than 12+ minutes? Absolutely no way to know how the race would have gone under completely different circumstances.

It's not just the 12 minutes, you know. He didn't have any unnecessary time loss anywhere in the race, whereas the other white jersey contenders did (some of them in abundance). But that's racing, so fair play to him. It just doesn't warrant the hype.

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

I doubt it. There's no telling how things would have gone if the race for the white jersey had been close. As an example, you think he he gives up every one of those seconds to Mollema in stage 20 if he only has a small amount of time on him rather than 12+ minutes? Absolutely no way to know how the race would have gone under completely different circumstances.

The break though was the difference in the time between Porte and Mollema. Take out the break and Mollema is 5 seconds up on Porte.

Mollema is a better climber and pretty much phoned in his ride in the final TT. Take out the break and it is much more likely that Mollema puts more time into Porte in the mountains (if it was close) and rides a harder final ITT.