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Richie Porte Discussion Thread.

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In which year will Porte win the GT Treble?

  • He will only manage the double

    Votes: 9 100.0%

  • Total voters
    9
Can you tell me the source of your information ?

Porte is a stronger GC rider than Mollema and he thinks so too

He is also hopeless at trying to get into breakaways and has no sprint and is not a very strong as a rouler ...stage hunting is not his forte so I'd be surprised if he didnt start as a GC rider at least
The only stage I remember him fighting for is in 2012 or 2013 vuelta that Menchov won.
 
Yes Porte is no typical stage hunter and the stages he does win are getting on the front on the final mountain and grinding everyone off his wheel which is his strength anyway even as a domestique plus he can do a good TT on his day especially in the shorter stage races. I think Trek hope for a top five finish and a stage win or two. I doubt that Porte will be working for Mollema or vice versa unless one of them loses big time early. They will probably be side by side on most MTFs if they are climbing as usual. Neither of them is the greatest bike handler and it's obviously cost them before and there ia always some luck involved. Even Contador couldn't stop crashing towards the end of his career. Surprised that Richie has never won a grand tour stage let alone made it to a podium overall. The podium is out of reach now it seems and even his fifth place in the 2016 Tour involved punctures and crashes. That was the year he should have made the podium but such is life and sport.
 
i would like to see him do well.

feel like his results do not reflect the talent.

maybe one or two too many years at the service Froome.
that unlucky giro as leader.
the crashing out when at BMC -- particularly 2017 when he was arguably in line to podium at very least.

and then to have to watch Thomas get to do what he might have done a few years before, if only... could not have been easy.
 
Can you tell me the source of your information ?

Porte is a stronger GC rider than Mollema and he thinks so too

He is also hopeless at trying to get into breakaways and has no sprint and is not a very strong as a rouler ...stage hunting is not his forte so I'd be surprised if he didnt start as a GC rider at least

Porte is no longer interested in riding for GC at GT's, hence his probable move to Ineos in 2021 - Porte has never won a GT stage which he would like on his palmares - You don't have to be in a break to win a stage.
 
Porte is no longer interested in riding for GC at GT's, hence his probable move to Ineos in 2021 - Porte has never won a GT stage which he would like on his palmares - You don't have to be in a break to win a stage.
Though his skill set means he would have to breakaway from a breakaway or select group to win. Which he might be over the hill on depending on what stages he focuses on but he should be able to do a Rui Costa.
 
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Though his skill set means he would have to breakaway from a breakaway or select group to win. Which he might be over the hill on depending on what stages he focuses on but he should be able to do a Rui Costa.

Because Porte has often climbed with the elite, I suspect he and his DSs assume that he's always going to be a GT contender, much like Majka or Mollema. Talent-wise, yes, he's for sure capable of a GT podium and winning almost any weeklong race, but I wonder if he should think carefully about what he wants to accomplish in the last 2-3 years of his career. Going back to Sky as a dom would be a pure money move, and maybe that's OK, but I'd still like to believe he has more wins in him.

Sure, he might have left Sky one year earlier but IMO a bigger blow was the dissolution of BMC.
 
I ma still waiting for the evidence that he is riding the tour for stages . I have not heard this..Porte still sees himself this year as a GC rider at the Tour so can you please link where you are getting your information.
 
Because Porte has often climbed with the elite, I suspect he and his DSs assume that he's always going to be a GT contender, much like Majka or Mollema. Talent-wise, yes, he's for sure capable of a GT podium and winning almost any weeklong race, but I wonder if he should think carefully about what he wants to accomplish in the last 2-3 years of his career. Going back to Sky as a dom would be a pure money move, and maybe that's OK, but I'd still like to believe he has more wins in him.

Sure, he might have left Sky one year earlier but IMO a bigger blow was the dissolution of BMC.

He's also 35 and has had many mishaps. This isn't 2016 or 2017 Porte. He'll be hard pressed for a good GC result in the top 5 and stage win. Unless he focuses on a stage because there's always been someone better.
 
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He's also 35 and has had many mishaps. This isn't 2016 or 2017 Porte. He'll be hard pressed for a good GC result in the top 5 and stage win. Unless he focuses on a stage because there's always been someone better.

Somehow to me he seems very strong this year, strong enough to go for the GC at the Tour, I could imagine him getting a 5th place in Paris. I know this is bold, but I feel he has the legs this year.
 
I would have Thomas, Bernal, Pinot, TJV 3 leaders, Quintana, and Pogcar above hime. I think he is level with Bardet and Uran.
Well he seems more like top 10 these days in grand tours not top 5 but who knows ? This season is sure to have some surprising results with the re-scheduling of races. He would have been reasonably satisfied with his fifth place in 2016 but surely the following two years were a kick in the guts and a blow to his confidence. Last year he rode a pretty good TT but never had his best climbing legs. Just his luck that the race he finished without a crash, he wasn't in his best form ! To me the Tour looks like a Jumbo/Ineos battle which should help the leaders from weaker teams like Uran, Quintana and Porte/Mollema. Bardet seems to be in the Porte category now, be surprised if he was near a podium finish. Pogacar won't be team leading in the Tour anyway. Remains to be seen how his Vuelta result stands up compared to how he might go in the Giro and future Tours, still a great ride for youngster. As for Pinot he will probably look great for the first two weeks as usual. He needs a result. I think a podium would do wonders for his confidence. Should be a very interesting Tour this year especially with the rivalries within the top two teams.
 
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I would have Thomas, Bernal, Pinot, TJV 3 leaders, Quintana, and Pogcar above hime. I think he is level with Bardet and Uran.
I think he is easily above Uran who peaked a few years ago and especially Bardet based upon the last two years. So as suggested above I think Porte can do top 5 at Tour if he brings his best climbing form and stays upright. He is not strong enough to podium. He should finish ahead of Pinot who is fragile. But Porte is wasting his time looking for stage wins. A high GC finish is the best strategy even if top 5 is the best he could hope for. Of course he's getting old but also as suggested above he seems to have rediscovered good form this year.

Against him, other than age, is that he always shows great promise in the lead up to the Tour until of course we see the inevitable crash or "bad luck" [read: poor positioning].

But in terms of his descending and bike handling skills these can be learned. Even Froome showed huge improvement in this area, it was Froome Porte was trying to stay in touch with before the catastrophic crash on Mont du Chat . Hopefully someone has been in his ear telling him to practice his descending. His team can help with this too. We will see.
 
I'll be staggered if Porte is top in the TDF - He'll be lucky to make the top 20.
His ride in the Dauphine hasn't been bad. He's only getting dropped near the finish of the stages. I'd be surprised if he couldn't finish at least top 15 in the Tour. Top 10 is doable especially with so many good riders on Sky and Jumbo riding for others. Some others are struggling much more than him. But this will probably a be a strange Tour with the racing schedule so out of wack this year plus hit and miss training for a lot of the riders. No one will go into the race with an ideal preparation or even close.
 
But this will probably a be a strange Tour with the racing schedule so out of wack this year plus hit and miss training for a lot of the riders. No one will go into the race with an ideal preparation or even close.

With everything 'not normal', over a 3 week GT I'm expecting to see 'outliers' and lots of head-scratching performances. Do any of the teams really know where they are, with the possible exception of JV??
 
His ride in the Dauphine hasn't been bad. He's only getting dropped near the finish of the stages. I'd be surprised if he couldn't finish at least top 15 in the Tour. Top 10 is doable especially with so many good riders on Sky and Jumbo riding for others. Some others are struggling much more than him. But this will probably a be a strange Tour with the racing schedule so out of wack this year plus hit and miss training for a lot of the riders. No one will go into the race with an ideal preparation or even close.

Porte will not kill himself in the TDF - He would like to win a stage.
 
I'll be staggered if Porte is top in the TDF - He'll be lucky to make the top 20.

I disagree. For him -- absent crashes, illness etc -- it's a matter of priorities. If he said, I'm going to target top 10 in the TdF, that should be a piece of cake. All he has to do is TT decently and follow wheels without attacking. He may not be in the very top rung of GT riders right now -- but at least half of them are Sky or Jumbo domestiques this year who at some point will have to sacrifice themselves.

Somewhere there's a thread about highest placed GT riders who had the worst "best" stage finish, i.e., I think it's very possible to get a top 10 finish without ever finishing in the top 10 of a stage.
 
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